FTC: Comcast, DIRECTV to pay for "Do Not Call" violations

Cable and Internet provider Comcast and DIRECTV, the satellite TV company, have agreed to pay fines to settle charges that both companies called consumers who had asked not to be called again, the Federal Trade Commission announced Thursday.

DIRECTV will pay $2.31 million, and Comcast will pay $900,000, the FTC said.

“In both of these cases, DIRECTV and Comcast violated consumers’ privacy by calling people who specifically had asked these companies not to call them again,” said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz.

Comcast responded with a statement from Sena Fitzmaurice, executive director of corporate communications:

Comcast fully supports all Do-Not-Call regulations and we are committed to preventing unwanted telemarketing calls.  The FTC found our compliance with the national Registry to be 99.85% and chose not to pursue any claim against Comcast in that area.  This settlement is limited to alleged calls made to persons identified on our internal do-not-call list, where our compliance percentage was at 99.74%.  Both compliance percentages are greater than those reported by the FTC to Congress last year as evidencing ‘highly effective’ performance.    Since the period under review, we have further strengthened our policies and procedures to prevent unwanted telemarketing calls.