FTC Continues Aggressive Enforcement Actions Against Robocallers

Edited by Jeffrey D. Knowles and Gary D. Hailey

On Wednesday, the FTC announced a $3 million settlement with SBN Peripherals, a California-based telemarketing business, which the FTC alleged made more than 2.5 billion robocalls to consumers during an 18-month period pitching a variety of inferior or worthless products and services.

In the complaint, the FTC alleged that the defendants violated the law by calling telephone numbers listed on the National Do Not Call Registry, placing robocalls to consumers without their written permission, and obscuring the company's identity by manipulating the caller ID data to display vague terms such as "sales dept."

Under the settlement, the company and its principals are banned from all telemarketing activity. In addition, they are prohibited from misrepresenting any good or service, and from selling or otherwise benefitting from customers' personal information. They must dispose of all consumers' personal information