Dish Network ordered to pay USD 210 million for making unlawful telemarketing calls

Dish Network has been ordered to pay USD 126 million in civil penalties for placing millions of telemarketing calls in violation of regulations. The Department of Justice announced the settlement, saying the calls were in violation of the Federal Trade Commission’s Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR). The settlement represents the largest civil penalty ever paid to resolve telemarketing violations under the FTC Act, and is higher than the sum of all penalties paid up to now for similar violations. Dish will also pay a USD 84 million to four states for violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act,taking the total settlement to USD 210 million.

The case was originally filed in 2009 and went to trial in 2016. The co-plaintiffs, including the states of California, Illinois, North Carolina, and Ohio, alleged Dish made millions of unlawful telemarketing calls to consumers and was responsible for millions more made by retailers marketing Dish products and services. In a 2017 opinion, the district court found DISH liable for more than 66 million telemarketing violations of the TSR and other federal and state statutes, imposing significant compliance measures on Dish and awarding the plaintiffs USD 280 million in civil penalties and damages, with USD 168 million going to the US and USD 112 million to the state plaintiffs. In 2020, the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed those liability findings, but vacated and remanded the civil penalties and damages awards for recalculation.

In the latest ruling, Dish will have to continue following the measures imposed by the court in 2017. The company will also have to prepare and abide by a telemarketing plan, submit telemarketing compliance materials to the department and the FTC twice per year until 2027, and provide compliance reports requested by the department or the FTC.