OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Book and DVD retailer Québec Loisirs has paid $200,000 as part of a settlement over violations to the country’s telemarketing rules, plus agreed to end its previous telemarketing practices and help promote awareness of the rules, the CRTC said Wednesday.
Acting on complaints, the Commission investigated Québec Loisirs for alleged violations of the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules and found that it made unsolicited telemarketing calls advertising its products to consumers whose numbers were registered on the National Do Not Call List (DNCL). These calls also resulted in violations of the rules because the company failed to subscribe to the national DNCL and pay all applicable fees to the national DNCL operator. In addition to paying the administrative monetary penalty, Québec Loisirs committed to ensure future compliance with the rules.
“We rely on the complaints that Canadians submit to the National Do Not Call List”, said Tom Lowry, the CRTC’s director of telecommunications enforcement, in the announcement. “This information was extremely helpful to us in our investigation into Québec Loisirs. We are pleased to report that they have been cooperative and have agreed to change their telemarketing practices.”
To date, the CRTC’s enforcement actions have yielded over $4 million in administrative monetary penalties, which are remitted to the Receiver General for Canada, and $741,000 in other payments.
