DirectTV to Pay $5.4M in Privacy Fines

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday December 13, 2005 @08:48AM from the privacy-isn't-a-fad dept.

abscissa writes "Remember the do-not-call registry? DirecTV is in big trouble for violating the list, and faces the largest civil assessment ever obtained of $5.4M for harassing people over the phone at home and ignoring the registry. Although it looks like DirecTV was outsourcing all their telemarketing (obviously), the FTC recieved 1.4 million complaints, the biggest category of do-not-call violations ever recieved." From the article: "Majoras was quick to emphasize that the most important part of the settlement is that it sends a warning to companies that they cannot hire telemarketers and then turn their backs on whether or not the rules are followed."

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Sounds Fair to me/Poetic justice by Bodysurf · 2005-12-13 09:10 · Score: 1, Troll

DirecTV getting fined $5.4M is like all the endusers DirecTV sued for ~$4K.

And the "crime" is about the same: Getting a little free TV is no better/worse than getting called by a telemarketer in the middle of dinner.

The difference is DirecTV isn't going bankrupt because of this and DirecTV can write this off, unlike the endusers.