We can all agree that robocalls are the worst. Although there may not be a way to get rid of them completely (although agencies are certainly working on it), one of the biggest sources of these intrusions has finally been brought to court.
CBS News reports that Attorneys General from 48 states (as well as DC) are coming together to file a bipartisan lawsuit against Arizona-based Avid Telecom, its owner Michael D. Lansky and vice president Stacey S .Reeves. The 141-page suit claims the company illegally made more than 7.5 billion calls to people on the National Do Not Call Registry. Arizona Attorney General Kris Meyes has claimed that nearly 197 million robocalls were made to phone numbers in his state over a five-year period between December 2018 and January 2023.
The lawsuit alleges that Avid Telecom spoofed phone numbers, including 8.4 million that appeared to be from the government or law enforcement, and others disguised as those from Amazon, DirecTV and more. The lawsuit alleges that Avid Telecom violated the Telephone and Consumer Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule and other telemarketing and consumer laws.
The AGs asked the court to compel Avid Telecom to make the illegal robocalls, and to pay damages and restitution to the people it illegally called. They are also pursuing several legal procedures to make Avid coughing up money a basic offense, which due to the large number of calls it makes, can quickly increase. Sumco Panama, responsible for a smaller 5 billion robocalls, was fined nearly $300 million by the FCC last year.
Earlier this month, it was reported that XCast Labs was sued by the US Federal Trade Commission for allegedly helping other companies make calls to those on the National Do Not Call Registry.
In 2017, Dish reached a settlement that cost them $210 million. The company allegedly made millions of calls in an attempt to sell and promote its satellite TV service. Dish ultimately had to pay $126 million in civil fines to the US government, and $84 million to residents of California, Illinois, North Carolina and Ohio. Hopefully we will see similar results with Avid Telecom.
