Sprint To Pay $7.5 Million For Unwanted Marketing Calls And Texts

Sprint will pay $7.5 million to resolve a Federal Communications Commission Enforcement Bureau investigation of the mobile wireless company’s failure to honor consumer requests to opt out of phone and text marketing communications. This represents the largest Do-Not-Call settlement that the FCC has ever reached.

In addition to the $7.5 million payment, Sprint will implement a two-year plan to ensure compliance with FCC requirements designed to protect consumer privacy and prevent consumers from receiving unwanted telemarketing calls. This follows a 2011 settlement with Sprint arising from complaints that Sprint made telemarketing calls to consumers who had requested to be placed on the company’s Do-Not-Call list. In its consent decree with the Enforcement Bureau, Sprint has agreed to:

• Make a payment of $7.5 million to the U.S. Treasury;
• Develop and put into action a robust compliance plan designed, among other things, to help ensure future compliance with the FCC’s rules requiring companies to maintain internal Do-Not-Call lists and honor consumers’ requests;
• Develop operating procedures and policies specifically designed to ensure that Sprint’s operations comply with all company-specific Do-Not-Call rules;
• Designate a senior corporate manager as a Compliance Officer to ensure that Sprint complies with the terms and conditions of the compliance plan and the consent decree;
• Implement a training program to ensure that Sprint employees and contractors are properly trained how to record consumers’ Do-Not-Call requests so that the company removes their names and numbers from marketing lists;
• Report to the FCC any noncompliance with respect to consumers’ Do-Not-Call requests; and
• File with the FCC an initial compliance report within 90 days and annual reports for two years.