State dishes out first fines from law

INDIANAPOLIS -- Nine telemarketers that made unwanted calls to Indiana consumers are being fined a total of nearly $29,000 in the state's first enforcement of a new telephone privacy law.\nThe nine firms have reached settlements with the state, agreeing to take steps to prevent further calls to the more than 1 million phone lines in Indiana that are now off-limits to telemarketers, Attorney General Steve Carter said Wednesday.\nIf repeat violations occur, stiffer penalties are likely, Carter said. First-time violations can carry a penalty of up to $10,000, with up to $25,000 for repeat violations.\n"They've got a strong incentive to comply with the law," Carter told a news conference.\nCarter's office received 2,261 complaints of possible violations from Jan. 1 -- when the law took effect -- until March 31.\nOf those, 594 complaints were closed as of Wednesday, with fines ordered only in cases where Carter's office believed it needed to do so to prevent further abuses, he said.\n"In the majority of cases, there is just one complaint filed, and once we contact the group, we generally see immediate efforts made to get into compliance," he said.\nThe companies reaching settlement agreements filed in Marion Circuit Court this week face total fines of $28,265, with the largest penalty -- $6,825 -- ordered against America's Digital Satellite Telephone Inc.\nOther companies fined are America Online Inc. of Dulles, Va.; Easy Rest of Westland, Mich.; Home Gold Inc., of Columbia, S.C.; Hoosier Water Treatment of Indianapolis; J&L Distributing of Muncie; LJ Stone of Muncie; and Lifeline Industries of Mobile, Ala.\nNo-call laws have been adopted in at least 26 states. In Indiana, about 40 percent of the state's 2.5 million telephone lines have been added to the state's no-call list.\n"More than 700 lists have been purchased by telemarketers, but we know that there are groups out there that don't know about Indiana's law, and we will continue outreach efforts," Carter said.\nLast week, four nonprofit groups that rely on telemarketing to raise money for their causes sued the state in a federal lawsuit alleging the law violates free-speech rights. An Evansville company also filed a lawsuit in January saying the law unfairly hurts its business.\nPersons wanting to add phone lines to the list can do so by calling 1-888-834-9969 or registering online at http://www.in.gov/attorneygeneral.