Unsolicited telemarketer calls are bad enough for the people receiving them, but now Dish Network is on the hook for $280 million because of its call centers' dialing practices.

A federal district court entered that whopping judgment against Dish Network Monday for violating the Federal Trade Commission's Telemarketing Sales Rule. Those rules prohibit telemarketers from calling numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry, bars robocalls and prohibits calls to consumers who have requested not to be called by telemarketers.

Judge Sue Myerscough of the Central District of Illinois ordered Dish to pay $168 million to the federal government, a record penalty for violations of the FTC Act. Another $112 million will go to the states of California, Illinois, North Carolina and Ohio, who joined the lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice on behalf of the FTC. In a 475-page decision, Myerscough wrote that Dish was liable for violations committed by call centers the company hired to sell its products because Dish “knew or should have known” of their actions. Myerscough's ruling also imposed a 20-year compliance plan on Dish.

“The significance of the case is here you have a legitimate, well-known industry actor having to make sure those selling its products don't do so illegally,” said Lois Greisman, associate director of the FTC's Division of Marketing Practices. “The order forces them to really clamp down on how they market their product both directly and indirectly and that's a big deal and it should send a signal to other industry actors.”

However, the judge declined to grant an immediate ban on Dish's telemarketing, as requested by the government. Still, Dish said in a statement emailed to the National Law Journal that it “respectfully disagrees” with the judge's ruling, and plans to appeal.

“The amounts awarded in this case radically and unjustly exceed, by orders of magnitude, those found in the settlements in similar actions, notably against DirecTV, Comcast and Caribbean Cruise Lines,” the company said. “DISH is being held responsible for telemarketing activities conducted by independent third parties, including in circumstances where such third parties intentionally hid their telemarketing efforts from DISH.”

The case was filed in 2009 after the FTC investigated Dish and referred the case to the Justice Department. After years of litigation over discovery and other issues, the judge granted summary judgment in the government's favor in 2014. But what exactly Dish was liable for was still disputed, and the case went to a bench trial in January 2016 that lasted roughly five weeks.

Dish was first represented by a team of lawyers from Kelley Drye & Warren. A team from Orrick, led by partner Peter Bicks, joined the case shortly before the trial began.

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Unsolicited telemarketer calls are bad enough for the people receiving them, but now Dish Network is on the hook for $280 million because of its call centers' dialing practices.

A federal district court entered that whopping judgment against Dish Network Monday for violating the Federal Trade Commission's Telemarketing Sales Rule. Those rules prohibit telemarketers from calling numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry, bars robocalls and prohibits calls to consumers who have requested not to be called by telemarketers.

Judge Sue Myerscough of the Central District of Illinois ordered Dish to pay $168 million to the federal government, a record penalty for violations of the FTC Act. Another $112 million will go to the states of California, Illinois, North Carolina and Ohio, who joined the lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice on behalf of the FTC. In a 475-page decision, Myerscough wrote that Dish was liable for violations committed by call centers the company hired to sell its products because Dish “knew or should have known” of their actions. Myerscough's ruling also imposed a 20-year compliance plan on Dish.

“The significance of the case is here you have a legitimate, well-known industry actor having to make sure those selling its products don't do so illegally,” said Lois Greisman, associate director of the FTC's Division of Marketing Practices. “The order forces them to really clamp down on how they market their product both directly and indirectly and that's a big deal and it should send a signal to other industry actors.”

However, the judge declined to grant an immediate ban on Dish's telemarketing, as requested by the government. Still, Dish said in a statement emailed to the National Law Journal that it “respectfully disagrees” with the judge's ruling, and plans to appeal.

“The amounts awarded in this case radically and unjustly exceed, by orders of magnitude, those found in the settlements in similar actions, notably against DirecTV, Comcast and Caribbean Cruise Lines,” the company said. “DISH is being held responsible for telemarketing activities conducted by independent third parties, including in circumstances where such third parties intentionally hid their telemarketing efforts from DISH.”

The case was filed in 2009 after the FTC investigated Dish and referred the case to the Justice Department. After years of litigation over discovery and other issues, the judge granted summary judgment in the government's favor in 2014. But what exactly Dish was liable for was still disputed, and the case went to a bench trial in January 2016 that lasted roughly five weeks.