Treble Damages Award Challenged in Dish Network TCPA Lawsuit

Recently, a satellite television provider has fought the reasoning behind a $61 million Dish Network TCPA lawsuit judgment, saying that it was excessive and overlapped with another larger lawsuit in a different state.

Dish Network, one of the nation’s largest television satellite providers, has been ordered to pay $61 million in restitution for TCPA violations. This judgment is for treble damages, which means that the original judgment has been tripled for, in this case, intentional violation of federal law.

The TCPA, or the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, was enacted in 1991 to protect consumers from unsolicited phone calls and phone calls from automatic dialing systems. The TCPA also regulates SMS messages from businesses and restricts telephone solicitations.

In this recent Dish Network TCPA lawsuit, Dish was accused of over 51,000 unsolicited phone calls that violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by calling customers who had already placed their numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry.

What this means is that those phone numbers should be protected from unsolicited calls and that this right is protected by the TCPA. However, Dish has been accused of calling these numbers with full knowledge that those phone numbers were on the Do Not Call Registry.

Earlier this year, a court in North Carolina ordered Dish Network to pay $400 per call totaling close to $21 million. Dish Network opposed the ruling and claimed that its due process was violated. However, that same court ruled that no new trial should be given to the satellite television provider.

Not too long after that, a U.S. District judge trebled the damages, meaning that the cost per call was tripled. Dish was then ordered to pay $1200 per call which upped the judgment to $61 million. This happened because Dish Network, allegedly, had willfully violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

Dish Network is now arguing that because there is a similar case ensuing in Illinois to the tune of $280 million, they should not have to pay the $61 million and that the North Carolina amount is “excessive.”

They claim that the North Carolina judgment is punishing them for essentially the same action and because of this, the fact that the judgment was trebled is excessive.

In its brief, Dish Network said, “The award is even more problematic in light of the Illinois action. The district court in that case awarded the plaintiffs $280 million. The district court concluded that the award ‘represents a significant penalty for … years and years of careless and reckless conduct.’ This court’s treble award threatens to punish Dish for the same course of conduct that the district court considered in the Illinois action when calibrating the award in that case.”

The original plaintiff, Thomas Krakauer, filed the Dish Newtork TCPA lawsuit in 2014 and claimed that for two years he was called repeatedly by Dish despite being on the Do Not Call Registry.

This Dish Network TCPA Lawsuit is Krakauer v. Dish Network LLC, Case No. 1:14-cv-00333, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.

UPDATE: November 2017, the Dish Network Do Not Call Registry class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.

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If you were contacted on your cell phone by a company via an unsolicited text message (text spam) or prerecorded voice message (robocall), you may be eligible for compensation under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

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