Sprint To Pay Big in Largest-Ever Do-Not-Call List Settlement

Sprint has agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a case involving the Do-Not-Call list.

America’s third-largest wireless operator also will implement a two-year plan to ensure compliance with Federal Communications Commission requirements designed to protect consumer privacy and to prevent consumers from getting unwanted telemarketing calls.

“We expect companies to respect the privacy of consumers who have opted out of marketing calls,” said Travis LeBlanc, acting chief of the FCC Enforcement Bureau. “When a consumer tells a company to stop calling or texting with promotional pitches, that request must be honored. Today’s settlement leaves no question that protecting consumer privacy is a top enforcement priority.”

Sprint must take some additional internal measures and file an compliance report with the FCC within 90 days.

The Overland Park, Kansas-based company got its hand slapped in 2011 for a similar issue. The carrier paid $400,000 to the U.S. Treasury involving an investigation into customer complaints that it made marketing calls to consumers who had asked to be placed on the company’s internal Do-Not-Call list.

Monday’s settlement marks the largest-ever penalty for Do-Not-Call list violations.

The Do-Not-Call list has been around since 2003, when Americans began being able to opt out of receiving most telemarketing calls by putting their phone numbers on a national registry. Nonprofits and some other groups are exempt from the regulations.

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