Sprint Slapped with Massive FCC Fine for Do-Not-Call Violations

Sprint Slapped with Massive FCC Fine for Do-Not-Call ViolationsThings are likely so quiet at Sprint today that you can probably hear a pin drop.

This week, Sprint Corp. was ordered to pay a $7.5 million fine in a settlement with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The penalty comes in response to supposed violations of the Do-Not-Call rule.

The fine is the biggest settlement ever reached over this rule, and Sprint will also have to implement a two-year plan to ensure it complies with FCC requirements… Among other stipulations, Sprint will have to ensure its employees are properly trained on how to record consumers’ Do-Not-Call requests so that their names and numbers are removed from marketing lists.

According to MarketWatch, Sprint will also need to designate a senior corporate manager as Compliance Offer to ensure the company adheres to the FCC guidelines.

From wireless carriers to mobile marketers, fines – and hefty ones at that – are on the minds of many these days.

In October 2013, the FCC began enforcing a strict new set of rules governing marketing calls and text messages directed at consumers on their mobile phones.

New provisions in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) introduced these tighter restrictions on mobile marketing and mobile messaging.

Almost overnight, the revamped rules wrought confusion upon marketers uncertain of how these changes and corresponding mandates would impact their mobile marketing efforts.

In response to the new laws of the land, Mobile Marketing Watch, along with our sister sites mHealthWatch and mGamingWatch, hosted an emergency webinar last fall for marketers and related professionals across numerous industries who must urgently educate themselves on a variety of emerging issues related to consumer privacy, location based services, and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

The webinar, which featured expert insight from attorneys Ross Buntrock and Michael Hazzard of Arent Fox, Rip Gerber of Locaid, and Jared Reitzin and Darren Withers of mobileStorm, is now available to view online.

As a follow up to the well-received webinar, mobileStorm recently published a new whitepaper tackling the critically important issue of mobile marketing compliance.

So what exactly should you be doing in order to make sure that your policies and practices are in compliance with these confusing and controversial new rules? A good start would be to download the comprehensive guide to mobile marketing compliance at no charge from mobileStorm here.