by Donald Wood
Last updated: 10:00 AM ET, Fri March 6, 2015
Florida-based vacation marketers, Caribbean Cruise Line, will be fined more than $500,000 for allegedly making illegal telephone sales pitches that were portrayed as political surveys.
According to David P. Willis of Bloomberg.com, Caribbean Cruise Line reportedly made "billions" of unsolicited robocalls promoting vacations. The Federal Trade Commission and Attorney Generals from 10 states claim that the company placed "12 to 15 million illegal sales calls" each day.
Caribbean Cruise Line and seven other companies that worked alongside them making this operation possible reportedly disguised the automated sales calls as political surveys that would eventually lead the recipient to an option of pressing a certain button to receive a cruise for their participation.
What makes the situation such a big deal to authorities is that automated political survey calls are completely legal, despite the do-not-call rules. Since Caribbean Cruise Line allegedly disguised the robocalls as political surveys, though, the FTC claims the company violated federal law, according to Willis.
Receiving unsolicited phone calls is a major inconvenience for Americans that was remedied by the do-not-call list, but the Caribbean Cruise Line reportedly found a way around the law by masquerading its sales calls as political surveys.
The hope from the government and those receiving these robocalls is that not only will this decision stop Caribbean Cruise Line from placing any more calls, but also deter any other businesses from making the same decision to skirt the law.
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