Family Life

04.17.09 | FL News Team

The Federal Trade Commission has been listening to Americans who have complained about Do Not Call List violations. The government agency has fined two companies, DirecTV and Comcast for making telemarketing calls to people who have registered on the list.

The "Los Angeles Times" reports the satellite TV provider will pony up more than $2.3 million for making more than a million calls to its own customers on the list. In the case of Comcast the fine is $900 thousand dollars for breaking the same rule. While both companies will be writing big checks, neither admits to doing anything wrong.

DirecTV, which was fined five-point-three-million dollars in 2005 for doing the exact same thing, claims it only called those million households -- to be sure they really didn't want to hear from the company.

The Do Not Call Registry is a program run by the FTC. Americans who do not want to receive telemarketing calls can log onto the website donotcall.gov and register a phone number. While there are certain organizations and individuals not banned from making advertising calls, politicians for example, the registry is supposed to eliminate bothersome phone calls from for profit companies. The same website can be used to file a complaint.