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DOJ and 4 States Want $24 Billion In Fines From Dish Network For Telemarketing (arstechnica.com)
walterbyrd writes: The DOJ as well as Ohio, Illinois, California, and North Carolina say that Dish disregarded federal laws on call etiquette. US lawyers are asking for $900 million in civil penalties, and the four states are asking for $23.5 billion in fines, according to the Denver Post. 'Laws against phoning people on do-not-call lists and using recorded messages allow penalties of up to $16,000 per violation,' the Post added.
Although I recognize that telemarketing can be annoying, it's a form of speech. Arguably it's no different than junk mail, which there's no effort to ban. Online ads, which actually can be harmful by inserting malware, are not banned. I don't see why telemarketing is worse than those. There are good reasons why certain types of speech like slander and violent threats are illegal. However, telemarketing doesn't have the harmful impacts of those types of speech. This is a first amendment issue, and the government shouldn't be able to enforce bans on telemarketing. If a particular form of advertising is particularly obnoxious, the market can handle it if customers just stop doing business with that company. Either they will adjust their business model as the telemarketing wastes money or takes business away from them, or they will go out of business. Consumers already have that power, so they don't need the government to infringe upon first amendment rights.