FTC Crackdown May Curb Robocall Law Violations by Car Dealerships

The FTC and law enforcement partners are reportedly cracking down on robocall law violations.

On June 25, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced their “Operation Call It Quits.” The operation in partnership with the FTC’s law enforcement partners will crack down on robocall law violations across the country.

Included in the initiative are 94 actions which will target robocall organizations which have placed over a billion illegal calls to consumers. Many of these calls advertised services such as credit card interest rate reduction while others marketed products such as medical alert systems.

Four new cases from the FTC are included in Operation Call It Quits and three settlements have come from the operation. Two of the cases in the robocall law operation were filed by the Department of Justice.

“I wish we were here to announce that robocalls are a thing of the past,” Andrew Smith, Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a press conference according to the FTC. “But the fact that Operation Call it Quits partners have silenced some three billion calls, and blocked some egregiously serial dialers from the industry is important.”

“The continued vigilance shown by every one of these law enforcers is impressive: each case announced today represents months, if not years, of hard work by people dedicated to stopping these illegal calls.”

Telephone Consumer Protection Act

According to the Federal Communications Commission, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) was established by Congress in 1991 in order to combat the harassing telephone calls which seemed to become more and more common. Since then, numerous changes have been made to the federal law in order to keep the terms relevant and expand the amount of protection provided to consumers.

A variety of behaviors are prohibited under TCPA, including:

• Calling consumers before 8 am or after 9 pm;
• Not keeping a company-wide do not call list or failing to consumer requests to be on this list for five years;
• Failing to honor the National Do Not Call Registry, a country-wide list of phone numbers that have been registered as wanting not to receive telemarketing calls;
• Failing to provide the identity the person or organization who is calling or who the call is being made on behalf of;
• Soliciting customers using an artificial voice or recording;
• Making a prerecorded call or using an artificial voice in a call to a hospital, doctor, or other health care facility;
• Making a prerecorded call or using an artificial voice to call a service under which the recipient has to pay for the call;
• Sending unsolicited advertisement faxes;
• And more.

TCPA allows consumers to take legal action against companies such as car dealerships that violate the federal act. If companies are found to have violated TCPA with a robocall or other methods, they may be forced to pay $500 in statutory damages for each violation.

This means that the company has to pay for each call, text, or fax sent. If violations of TCPA are found to be willful, statutory damages can be increased to $1,500 per violation.

Join a Free Car Dealership TCPA Violations Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

You may be eligible to join this lawsuit investigation into car dealership TCPA violations under the following circumstances:

• You did NOT provide express permission in writing to the car dealership to receive the calls or messages.
  You did NOT purchase a vehicle from the dealership that is contacting you.

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