Sprint Coughing Up Record $7.5 Million to Settle Do-Not-Call List Charges

Sprint will pay $7.5 million to resolve a Federal Communications Commission investigation over whether the carrier failed to respect consumer requests to opt out of phone and text marketing from the carrier.

The FCC said in a statement that it is the largest-ever settlement over potential Do Not Call violations. It follows an earlier 2011 settlement that the carrier had made with regulators, in which it paid $400,000.

“We expect companies to respect the privacy of consumers who have opted out of marketing calls,” said Travis LeBlanc, acting chief of the Enforcement Bureau. “When a consumer tells a company to stop calling or texting with promotional pitches, that request must be honored.”

Sprint signed a consent decree with the FCC, agreeing to make the payment and develop new procedures and policies to comply with do-not-call rules, designate a top manager as a compliance officer and implement companywide training.

“This consent decree relates to issues resulting from technical and inadvertent human errors, which Sprint reported to the FCC,” the company said in a statement. “The issues related only to Do Not Call Rules. We have conducted a thorough, top-to-bottom evaluation of our Do Not Call data management systems, and significant capital investments have been made to improve our Do Not Call/SMS Message architecture, oversight and compliance.”

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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