FTC Fines Two Telemarketing Companies For Making Robocalls

The FTC is cracking down on robocall telemarketing businesses, announcing last week it cracked down on two such companies that have been making robocalls to consumers that have been on the National Do Not Call Registry since 2012 or even earlier.

According to a press release by the FTC late last week, lots of the defendants in FTC v. Justin Ramsey, et al. and FTC v. Aaron Michael Jones, et al., have agreed to court orders that ban them from making robocalls forever. The defendants also agreed to pay fines as part of the settlement of more than $500,000.

“The law is clear about robocalls — if a telemarketer doesn’t have consumers’ written permission, it’s illegal to make these calls,” said Jessica Rich, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, in the release. “The FTC will continue working hard to put a stop to telemarketers who ignore the law.”

The FTC said the leaders of the illegal operations, Justin Ramsey and Aaron Michael (“Mike”) Jones, had been sued by state attorneys general for telemarketing violations in the past. The FTC’s litigation against them is ongoing as well.

According to the FTC, the defendants made millions of robocalls during 2012 and 2013 from the DNC Registry. In July 2012, in one week alone, the FTC contends the defendants made more than 1.3 million calls, 80 percent of which were on the DNC Registry. That practice continued for years, with the FTC saying in April and May of 2016, Ramsey’s company, Prime Marketing LLC, placed 800,000 or more calls to numbers on the DNC Registry. The FTC noted that two former business partners of Ramsey and their three companies agreed to settle.