Dish Network Appeals $61 Million TCPA Violations Verdict to U.S. Supreme Court

Dish Network is taking its appeal of a $61 million TCPA violations verdict all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in hopes the verdict is reversed.

The verdict dates to 2017, when a North Carolina federal jury ordered Dish to pay about $400 per call because the company allegedly called more than 51,000 phone numbers that were on the National Do Not Call Registry. By contacting those customers, Dish Network allegedly violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which includes telemarketing protections for consumers who have voluntarily listed their phone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry.

U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Eagles later found that Dish Network committed the TCPA violations knowingly, which allowed her to triple the damages to $61 million. That equals about $1,200 per call made to each person listed on the Do Not Call Registry.

Dish Network tried to argue against the judgment once already, but a Fourth Circuit panel refused to overturn the verdict, accusing Dish of “nothing more than an attempt to dismember the TCPA.”

In paperwork regarding its appeal, Dish said the $61 million verdict is an “eye-popping liability” and that the case did not show “real-world harms” to any consumer except for the named plaintiff, Thomas Krakauer, who filed the suit in 2014. Dish says other people listed as plaintiffs no longer lived at the homes where the phone numbers were registered with the Do Not Call Registry, that Dish’s phone calls went to answering machines or that someone other than a named plaintiff could have answered the phone.

On appeal, the Fourth Circuit judicial panel said that Dish’s argument was “a simple remedial scheme into a fact-intensive quarrel over how long a party was on the line or how irritated it felt when the phone rang.”

Dish also is fighting a 2017 penalty of $280 million that state and federal regulators imposed upon the company for contacting consumers who were on the Do Not Call Registry and consumers who previously had explicitly said they did not wish to receive telephone sales calls from Dish Network telemarketers.

TCPA Violations and the FCC

For most people, adding their phone number to the Do Not Call Registry really means “do not call this phone number” no matter who is apt to answer the phone, hear it ring, or if a machine picks up. The bottom line is that the phone number is not to be called. Period.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established the Do Not Call Registry in 2003 to try to reduce the number of hang-up calls and dead air calls consumers receive. The FCC also oversees the restrictions of telemarketing calls and the use of automatic phone dialing systems through the TCPA of 1991.

Back when the Do Not Call Registry was established, few people had cell phones. A 2018 survey conducted by Pew Research Center found that 95 percent of consumers in the U.S. have cell phones and 77 percent of those are smartphones. Many of these cell phone numbers are on the Do Not Call Registry.

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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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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.