OTTAWA–GATINEAU – Four air duct cleaning companies have paid $55,000 as part of a settlement over violations to Canada's telemarketing rules, and the CRTC has fined five others a total of $94,000, the Commission said Tuesday.
Acting on complaints, the CRTC launched several investigations and determined that nine companies, all based in the Greater Toronto Area, had made unsolicited telemarketing calls without being registered with the national do not call list (DNCL) operator and without having purchased a subscription to the DNCL.
Four of the nine companies, Bridge Home Services Inc., Cambridge Heating Services, HR Home Services, and Top Line Air Duct Cleaning Inc., agreed to stop making non-compliant telemarketing calls and pay monetary penalties of $6,000, $23,000, $3,000 and $23,000, respectively, for a total of $55,000.
The five other companies that were issued a notice of violation and an administrative monetary penalty are Aqua Duct Cleaning Services – $9,000; Goodlife Home Services Inc. – $16,000; Kareem Duct Cleaning – $15,000; N. Bro Transport Inc. – $14,000; and Toronto Breeze Air Duct Cleaning Services Inc. – $40,000. Those companies now have 30 days to submit comments.
The Commission said that all of these companies used foreign call centres, and added that it has also issued notices of violation and warning letters to seven call centres located in Pakistan, India and the U.S. As part of the investigations of the calls centres in Pakistan, the CRTC worked in close collaboration with the Karachi local police through the RCMP.
“The telemarketing calls made by these air duct cleaning companies generated a large number of complaints by Canadians. The investigations were lengthy and labour-intensive given that there were numerous companies and they used foreign call centres that sometimes used caller identification spoofing”, said Manon Bombardier, CRTC chief compliance and enforcement officer, in the announcement. “We appreciate the assistance we received from the Karachi local police and the RCMP in our investigations of the call centres in Pakistan.”
To date, the CRTC's enforcement efforts have yielded over $6 million in monetary penalties, which are remitted to the Receiver General for Canada, and $741,000 in other payments.
