OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Second hand clothing store chain Thrift Magic has paid $250,000 as part of a settlement over violations to the country’s telemarketing rules, plus agreed to correct its telemarketing practices, the CRTC said Wednesday.
Acting on complaints, the Commission investigated Thrift Magic for alleged violations of the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules and found that it made unsolicited telemarketing calls to Canadians whose numbers were registered on the National Do Not Call List (DNCL). Thrift Magic also failed to register with the national DNCL operator and subscribe to the list, plus made calls outside the permitted calling hours.
In addition to paying the administrative monetary penalty, Thrift Magic pledged to implement a compliance program to ensure that similar violations do not occur in the future.
"We appreciate receiving complaints from Canadians registered on the National Do Not Call List who receive unsolicited calls”, said Manon Bombardier, CRTC chief compliance and enforcement officer, in the announcement. “This information helps us in our investigations and aids us in our work to protect Canadians. We are pleased to report that Thrift Magic cooperated with our investigation and has now changed its telemarketing practices."
To date, the CRTC's enforcement actions have yielded over $5 million in administrative monetary penalties, which are remitted to the Receiver General for Canada, and $741,000 in other payments.
