TCPA 3rd-Party Liability: It All Depends What Your Definition of "On Behalf Of" Is.*
by Joseph Sanscrainte

The FCC recently issued a Public Notice that may have escaped the attention of quite a few compliance professionals in the telemarketing space. Issued on April 4, 2011, this Public Notice represents the FCC's first steps toward attempting to reconcile arguably conflicting provisions of the TCPA as these provisions apply to telemarketing calls made by third-party retailers.

The marketing techniques of DISH Network, LLC form the basis of the FCC's quandary. Specifically, DISH Network (and its technology partner Echostar) rely upon third-party, separately incorporated entities to market their direct-broadcast satellite services. Accordingly, when one Philip J. Charvat received 30 telemarketing calls offering DISH Network/Echostar services, Mr. Charvat discovered to his chagrin that these calls were made by numerous independent third-party retailers (e.g., DISH TV Now, Marrick Dish Co., and Marketing Guru). Mr. Charvat took exception to these calls and, rather than file separately against each individual third-party retailer, he drove upstream and filed a TCPA-based lawsuit against, you guessed it, Echostar. In the meantime, the United States government, along with several states, separately sued DISH Network under the TCPA alleging violations of Do Not Call, abandoned call, and pre-recorded call rules.

Not surprisingly, DISH Network is of the opinion that it has no liability for calls made by third-party retailers offering DISH Network/Echostar services - Mr. Charvat and the government agencies suing DISH/Echostar beg to differ. Each side, however, has elements of the TCPA on their side.

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Noble Systems User Group Conference (SNUG):

Date: May 17-19, 2011
Location: Westin Atlanta North Hotel, Atlanta, GA

Contact Center Compliance will be exhibiting and hosting a Telemarketing Update for Noble customers with guest speakers Ryan Thurman, Michele Shuster, and Joe Sanscrainte.

Interactive Intelligence Interactions 2011
Date: May 24-26, 2011.   Location: Indianapolis, IN

Ryan Thurman, Michele Shuster, and Joe Sanscrainte will be presenting a content rich discussion of US and International DNC rules for contact centers operating in the B2C space. Learn about the 10 most pressing compliance issues, strategies to keep your contact center out of legal hot water, the importance of creating a "defensible position," and what kinds of documentation, processes and policies will stand up to Federal and State regulators.

Register Now: http://www.inin.com/interactions/Pages/default.aspx