Two groups of defendants that offer vacation and timeshare companies will pay the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) a total of nearly $1.2 million, stemming from their violations of the Do Not Call Rule.
According to separate settlement agreements, Central Florida Investments, Inc., Westgate Resorts, Ltd., and CFI Sales & Marketing, LLC (collectively, the Westgate defendants) will pay $900,000, and All In One Vacation Club, LLC, Accumen Management Services, Inc., and their principals (collectively, the All In One Vacation Club defendants) will pay $275,000.
Both sets of defendants are barred from violating the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) and its Do-Not-Call registry provisions.
In its initial allegations against the Westgate defendants, the FTC claimed the companies used outbound telemarketing to sell timeshares and vacations at timeshare resorts to consumers nationwide.
According to the FTC, the Westgate defendants bought phone numbers from an Internet-based lead generator that collected contact information in connection with offering an array of free and discounted products to consumers on its Brandarama.com Web site.
The FTC further alleged the Westgate defendants purchased the telephone numbers of consumers who answered travel-related survey questions, such as “Select your favorite travel destination,” on Brandarama.com’s online form. Many of these telephone numbers were on the DNC Registry. The Brandarama.com Web site did not refer to Westgate or notify consumers that they would receive telemarketing calls, except in language buried in its “terms and conditions” or “privacy policy” pages. The FTC claimed.
Similarly, according to the FTC The All In One Vacation Club defendants also sold timeshare and vacation packages through the company’s telemarketing unit, All In One. According to the Commission, All In One called many consumers whose numbers were on the DNC Registry. Many of the calls All In One made were to consumers who had filled out entry forms for sweepstakes to win vacation packages and other high-ticket items. While the entry forms had a fine-print waiver on the back that the defendants claimed gave them the right to call consumers on the Registry, the Commission disagreed.
In that complaint, the agency stated that the form would not lead a reasonable consumer to expect that by completing it, they would receive a call from the seller about its timeshares and other vacation offerings, and that it did not constitute either “express agreement” or an “established business relationship” under the DNC provisions.
In addition to calling phone numbers on the Registry, the FTC charged the All In One Vacation Club defendants with violating the abandoned call provisions of the TSR by failing to connect calls answered by consumers to a sales representative within two seconds of when the consumers completed their greetings.
The FTC contends that, in both the Westgate and All In One Vacation Club cases, consumers did not reach out to the defendants seeking information about their products or services before receiving a telemarketing call. Thus, the companies did not have an “established business relationship” with the consumers. Moreover, consumers had not given the defendants permission to call. Without consumers’ express written agreement and without an “established business relationship” with them, making telemarketing calls to registered numbers is illegal.
