On September 11, 2008 the Federal Trade Commission gave testimony on prepaid calling card marketing practices to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

In it’s testimony, the FTC vowed to continue to educate and take action against calling card companies who knowingly misrepresent their products–just as they have been doing since the 1990’s.

Further, the FTC told the committee that their own testing revealed, on average, that cards they tested–for two lawsuits–provided somewhere between 40% - 50% of the minutes advertised.

The FTC also said it would continue to work closely with other law enforcement partners to quell deceptive calling card marketing practices. And it would continue to work in the task force it created in the Fall of 2007 with representatives from more than thirty five state attorneys general and other local agencies.

“The FTC Act’s prohibitions on deceptive and unfair practices provide the Commission with a powerful tool to bring enforcement actions against the distributors of prepaid calling cards,” according to the testimony. “‘The Prepaid Calling Card Consumer Protection Act’ is directed at the conduct of prepaid calling card service providers – carriers – as well as distributors, and therefore would implicitly give the FTC jurisdiction over common carriers engaged in the deceptive practices prohibited by the proposed legislation.”

As quoted, “The Commission recognizes that the agency and the Committee share the same goals: stopping unscrupulous calling card companies from defrauding vulnerable consumers . . . [and] looks forward to working with the Committee regarding the language of the legislation as the Committee moves forward.”

When all was said and done, the Commission voted to approve the testimony 4-0.

September 12th, 2008 Subscribe to the RSS feed!