California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has reached a settlement in what might be the first lawsuit filed charging a company with violating the national Do Not Call law.
Filed in November 2003, the Attorney General’s complaint charged Hayward, CA-based American Home Craft Inc. and two of the company’s officers with making illegal telemarketing phone calls to more than 120 Californians who had placed their names on the national registry. The complaint also charged the home improvement company with continuing to call customers after they asked to be placed on the company’s internal do-not-call list in violation of federal law.
The complaint was filed against American Home Craft; Bradley Alan Smith, the company’s president; and Brent Frenchak, the former vice president in charge of marketing, who has since left the company. Under the terms of the judgment, signed by U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey S. White in San Francisco, all three defendants must comply with federal and state do-not-call laws.
American Home Craft and Smith are required to implement compliance procedures that include plans for recording, investigating and reporting complaints and ensure their employees are properly trained in those procedures.
The company and its president also are required to pay $45,000 in civil penalties, $30,000 for the costs of investigating and prosecuting the case and $25,000 in restitution to the California residents who lodged complaints with the California Attorney General, the Federal Trade Commission or the Federal Communications Commission about receiving phone calls. Individual consumers who filed a complaint against the company prior to the entry of the judgment will receive damages of up to $200 each.
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