The Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ), acting on a referral from the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP), announced Monday, April 4, that it has filed a civil enforcement action against New Jersey-based firm N.C.W.C., Inc., for violations of Wisconsin telemarketing laws in marketing extended vehicle service plans to automobile owners in Wisconsin.
“Wisconsinites are being inundated with unsolicited telemarketing calls from companies selling extended auto warranties—even though many of those Wisconsinites put their numbers on the Do-Not-Call registry so they’d be spared these interruptions to their daily lives. Working with our partners at DATCP, DOJ will vigorously enforce our telemarketing and Do-Not-Call laws to protect Wisconsinites from unwanted telephone solicitations,” Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul was quoted as saying in a news release.
According to the release, telephone solicitors not only need to register as such in Wisconsin, but there are also telemarketing laws that require certain disclosures and prohibit misrepresentations. These laws give Wisconsin consumers the power to stop unwanted telemarketing calls and give state law enforcement agencies the authority to prosecute fraudulent telemarketers who operate across state lines.
As alleged in the complaint, N.C.W.C. markets extended vehicle service plans to automobile owners throughout the country. In particular, it markets plans administered by Palmer Administrative Services, Inc., which is operated from the same office as N.C.W.C. In 2017-2018, N.C.W.C. made thousands of telemarketing calls to Wisconsin numbers without being registered as a telephone solicitor as required by state law. In addition, several thousand of the calls N.C.W.C. made to Wisconsin consumers were to numbers listed on the Do-Not-Call registry, which also violates Wisconsin law, the release stated.
N.C.W.C. also entered into sales representation agreements with 42 other companies under which those companies have sold the Palmer-administered extended vehicle service plans to consumers. These companies have made large numbers of telemarketing calls to Wisconsin numbers without being registered as telephone solicitors. Two of these companies are known to have made several hundred thousand telemarketing calls to Wisconsin numbers listed on the Do-Not-Call registry. The total number of such illegal calls by the remaining 40 vendors may be much larger. The State has alleged that the vendors were acting as N.C.W.C.’s agents when making telemarketing calls to Wisconsin consumers, and that N.C.W.C. is liable for the Do-Not-Call violations arising from those calls.
File photo/public domain.
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