Ship sails on free cruise to Bahamas phone calls

CRTC puts stop to robocalls after complaints, fines Florida company $200,000

The annoying ship horn promising a free cruise to the Bahamas has been silenced for good.

It’s welcome news for anyone who dashed to answer a call, or scrambled to find their cellphone, only to discover it was merely a marketing ploy, offering up a free cruise in exchange for answering the survey.

After receiving complaints, the CRTC, the federal telecommunications regulator, began an investigation into Caribbean Cruise Line Inc., owned by Florida-based Consolidated Travel Holdings Group. The CRTC announced Wednesday that it reached a settlement with Consolidated Travel Holdings Group for telemarketing violations from Feb. 1, 2013 to Oct. 31, 2014.

The company has agreed to pay a $200,000 fine and to end its robocalls. The CRTC found that the company used an automatic dialing-announcing device to telephone numbers registered on Canada’s national Do Not Call List. As well, the company did not display an originating telephone number as required.

The Do Not Call List, begun in 2008, now has 12.7 million numbers registered.

As part of the investigation in the cruise robocalls, the CRTC said it worked with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which was investigating the company.

Last week, Caribbean Cruise Line agreed to a $7.73 million (U.S.) civil penalty for its role in what the FTC called an illegal robocalling operation.

However, the penalty will be partially suspended after the company pays $500,000.

It claimed to make calls for political surveys, and then went on to market cruises. U.S. federal law prohibits sales calls to numbers registered with the Do Not Call Registry, but political calls and surveys are exempted.

The settlement arises from a complaint filed jointly by the FTC and attorneys general from 10 states, including Florida, against Caribbean Cruise Line Inc. and seven associated companies.

Florida’s attorney general’s office said in a news release that the illegal operation averaged 12 to 15 million illegal sales calls a day and generated millions of dollars for the companies.

The CRTC noted that telemarketers must comply with the rules, whether they make the calls themselves or hire a third-party agency to make calls on their behalf, and whether they are based in Canada or abroad.

“This cross-border investigation sends a message to foreign-based telemarketers that they must comply with our rules when calling Canadians, and shows that our efforts to shield Canadians from unwanted telemarketing calls are yielding results,” said Manon Bombardier, CRTC’s chief compliance and enforcement officer, in a news release.

The same company was the subject of a U.S. investigation led by the Federal Trade Commission, which also levied a steep fine