Attorney General putting the brakes on pre-recorded calls

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel announced his office reached a settlement with Florida-based Explicit Media, one of the six companies the attorney general accused of placing thousands of unsolicited calls, including prerecorded commercial messages, to Arkansas residents.

The calls, known as robocalls, generated hundreds of complaints from Arkansans. After the attorney general filed the lawsuits in June 2009, Explicit Media and the other five companies sued by the state abandoned robocalling.

With the settlement, Explicit Media and its owners agreed to cease robocalling of any kind.

"Like most other Arkansans I too received repeated robocalls related to the sale of automobile warranties and I could certainly relate to the annoyance these calls caused," McDaniel said. "My office still receives occasional robocall complaints and we are investigating these complaints. It is gratifying that the portion of the telemarketing industry that used this improper sales tactic now understands that these robocalls will not be tolerated."

The lawsuit filed by the state alleged that Explicit Media and its owners violated state and federal telemarketing laws by calling Arkansas consumers on their home phones and cellular phones to offer extended automobile warranties. In addition, the state further alleged that the defendants violated state and federal telemarketing laws by playing a prerecorded message on the consumer's telephone and displaying a phone number on the consumer's caller ID that was not the phone number for the company.

The settlement requires Explicit Media to cease making any prerecorded calls and to refrain from ever utilizing an automated system for the selection and dialing of telephone numbers.

The settlement also requires the defendants to cooperate with the state as part of any current or future lawsuit involving the auto warranty industry.