Bad telemarketer!

Attorney General Greg Abbott has announced that the state is suing fifteen businesses for violating the state's no-call law.

The Texas attorney general's office filed suit against 15 telemarketing businesses Tuesday, claiming they violated the state's no-call law.

The state alleges the companies, including four in the Houston area, called consumers repeatedly with high-pressure sales pitches.

"Businesses in the state of Texas must respect the law," Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said. "When they don't, there will be consequences."

The suits, which seek temporary and permanent injunctions to stop the calls, are the first to be filed against telemarketers since the law took effect in January 2002.

The defendants are subject to fines of up to $1,000 for each phone call made in violation of the law and up to $3,000 per call if the company knowingly violated it.

I have a minor quibble with this, in that if you look at the list of defendants (PDF), none of them appears to be a firm whose primary business it is to call people. As such, I don't know why the AG refers to them as "telemarketing businesses" instead of "businesses that are breaking the anti-telemarketing laws", but whatever. More power to you on this, AG Abbott, even if there's no good reason for the list of defendants to be in a PDF and not plain old HTML (I'm just never satisfied, am I?).

Posted by Charles Kuffner on November 26, 2003 to The great state of Texas | TrackBack