OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Florida-based Consolidated Travel Holdings Group has paid $200,000 as part of a settlement over violations to Canada's telemarketing rules, plus agreed to stop making unsolicited telemarketing calls to consumers north of the border, the CRTC said Thursday.
Acting on complaints, the Commission investigated Caribbean Cruise Line Inc. for unsolicited telemarketing calls made via an automatic dialing-announcing device (ADAD) that offered cruises in exchange for answering a survey. The company did not possess a valid exemption to the national do not call list (DNCL) and many of the Canadians who received their calls had their phone number registered on the DNCL. Caribbean Cruise Line is owned by Consolidated Travel Holdings Group Inc.
The CRTC said that it worked closely with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission during the investigation, and reiterated its commitment to reduce the number of unwanted calls to Canadians from telemarketers, whether they are based in Canada or abroad.
"This cross-border investigation sends a message to foreign-based telemarketers that they must comply with our rules when calling Canadians, and shows that our efforts to shield Canadians from unwanted telemarketing calls are yielding results”, said Manon Bombardier, CRTC chief compliance and enforcement officer, in the announcement. “We appreciate the assistance we received from the Federal Trade Commission over the course of our investigation. We are pleased to report that Caribbean Cruise Line cooperated with our investigation and has now voluntarily ceased making unsolicited telemarketing calls to Canadian consumers."
To date, the CRTC's enforcement efforts have yielded close to $6 million in monetary penalties, which are remitted to the Receiver General for Canada, and $741,000 in other payments.
