TV service, charity fined for violating telemarketing laws

A satellite television service and an affiliated cancer charity must pay almost $20,000 in state fines and fees for violating telemarketing laws.

Regal Satellite and its owner Brady K. Nelson settled allegations from the Washington Attorney General’s Office that the company used automated dialers to solicit business in Spokane earlier this year.

As part of its sales pitch, Regal’s message told prospective customers that each sale of satellite service would generate a donation to a charity called The Cancer Relief Fund, which does business under several other names, according to court documents.

Nelson said the attorney general’s office turned a mistake on his part into a big deal to warn other firms engaged in telemarketing about the strict Washington State laws.

“We honestly didn’t know that what we were doing wasn’t allowed in Washington,” said Nelson, who also owns the Spokane Shock, the arenafootball2 team that won a championship in its inaugural 2006 season.

There were no allegations of charity fraud. Rather, the attorney general’s office was concerned with Regal’s use of an automated dialer for purposes of soliciting commercial business. That’s against the law in Washington, though automated telephone calls can be used by charities or such things as political campaigns.

Nelson, his Regal Satellite business, and the cancer charities he started, did not admit to any wrongdoing, according to a press release issued Tuesday by the attorney general’s office.

They settled, Nelson said, “because when the state hits you, they drop the hammer and tell you how it’s going to be, or else. We don’t feel we were treated fairly.”

The solicitation effort yielded just a handful of new accounts for Regal Satellite, and netted the cancer charity about $30, said Shannon Smith, who handled the case for the attorney general.

It also generated eight complaints from customers who were upset because they were on the federal Do Not Call registry and thought they had finally put a stop to telemarketing calls.

Smith said the state takes seriously laws against the use of automated dialers to solicit business.

Jack Zurlini, who works for the attorney general’s office in Spokane, said the laws are designed “to stop businesses from harassing people at dinner time.”

He said Washington residents are fed up with telemarketers and this law is designed to stop at least a portion of those unsought, cold-call solicitations.

The attorney general’s office filed two lawsuits in Spokane County Superior Court this month. The suit against Regal Satellite was settled for a $25,000 fine, with all but $5,000 suspended, along with $12,000 in attorney fees. The suit against The Cancer Relief Fund was settled for a suspended $5,000 fine, though the charity will be forced to pay $2,500 in attorney fees.

The cancer charity is run by Brady Nelson’s brother, Ryan Nelson, who said he is a cancer survivor who wanted to operate a charity to help offset the costs to families of caring for cancer patients.

Ryan Nelson said the charity was formed in March 2006 and is just beginning to raise funds.