Telecommunications giant Bell Canada is being hit with a record $1.3-million administrative penalty for breaching Canada's Do Not Call List.
The CRTC is levying the penalty for unauthorized telemarketing practices.
Between January and October of this year, third-party telemarketers hired by Bell Canada, which is in talks to buy CTV, called Canadians whose numbers were on the National Do Not Call List or Bell's internal list, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) said in a press release.
The unsolicited calls were intended to promote and sell Bell Canada's television, telephone, wireless and Internet services.
No violations were committed by Bell-operated call centres, the company said in a statement.
Bell Canada and the CRTC agreed to a settlement announced Monday.
"All telemarketers must respect the wishes of Canadians who have registered their telephone number on the National DNCL or requested that a telemarketer include their number on its internal do not call list," Andrea Rosen, the CRTC's chief telecommunications enforcement officer, said in a statement. "Even though the calls in this instance were made by third parties, Bell Canada must ultimately ensure that the rules are followed. We appreciate Bell Canada's willingness to work with us to address our concerns."
Bell, the country's largest communications company, reacted swiftly by cancelling contracts with two telemarketers who didn't follow the rules and suspending several others.
The company said it has also implemented remedial measures to make sure its independent telemarketers don't call Canadians who don't want to be bothered by telemarketers.
Bell said it co-operated with the CRTC's investigation and takes the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules and the National Do Not Call List seriously.
Meanwhile, Bell Canada was also accused of using automated calling devices without consent.
The automated calling devices called prepaid mobile phone customers without their prior consent, the CRTC stated.
Customers received automated calls as their prepaid minutes were set to expire to encourage them to buy more airtime.
Bell hasn't admitted fault but, after learning of the CRTC's concerns, voluntarily ended the calls and took steps to $266,000 to Concordia University's Institute for Information and Systems Engineering.
The CRTC has received about 300,000 complaints of alleged Do Not Call List violations and conducted more than 100 investigations since the registry was implemented in September 2008.
Earlier this year, Bell Canada's parent company, BCE Inc., agreed to buy the 85 per cent of CTV Inc. it didn't already own for a price of $1.3 billion.
