A California company that made repeated calls to North Carolina consumers on the Do Not Call Registry even after being ordered to stop must now pay $40,000 to the state, Attorney General Roy Cooper said today.
“My office will continue to fight those who ignore the Do Not Call Registry,” Cooper said. “You’ve said loud and clear that you don’t want telemarketers calling you at home.”
Since the Do Not Call law began in October 2003, Cooper’s Consumer Protection Division has taken action against more than 30 companies that have broken the law, forcing violators to pay more than $1 million.
This week, Wake County Superior Court Judge Lucy Inman signed a consent order resolving a motion for contempt that Cooper filed in 2010 against Warrior Custom Golf, Inc. and its owner Brendan M. Flaherty for violating a 2004 court order about the company’s telemarketing practices. The company has now agreed to stop its unlawful calls and must pay $40,000 for its violations in the form of civil penalties which go to North Carolina public schools.
In 2003, Cooper filed suit against Warrior Custom Golf and won a court order banning the company from making telemarketing calls to consumers on the Do Not Call Registry and to consumers who asked not receive any further telephone solicitations by the company. In late 2009, Cooper’s office started hearing from consumers again about the company’s telemarketing practices and has seven written complaints against the company on file.
Warrior Custom Golf claimed that it was entitled to call people on the Do Not Call Registry because they responded to a mailing it sent out. Although, there is an exception in the law for existing business relationships, telemarketers must still comply with direct requests from consumers to stop the calls. All of the consumers Cooper’s office heard from about Warrior Custom Golf made direct requests not to be called again but the company continued to call them anyway.
Source: Attorney General Roy Cooper