[CNW]

Ottawa-Gatineau, QC, June 29, 2016 /CNW/ - The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today announced that six Canadian companies that made calls to Canadians through third-party call centres or on behalf of telemarketers have paid a total of $1.23 million as part of settlements for making non-compliant telemarketing calls.

The companies and penalty amounts are:

Sirius XM Canada Inc. - $650,000
Raid Inc. - $500,000
9117-7683 Québec Inc. (operating as Centre d'appel J.L) - $40,000
Leads, Call Centers & Marketing Solutions Inc. - $30,000
8472416 Canada Inc. (operating as Télémarketing TS) - $8,000
9165-2602 Québec Inc. (operating as Planification Marketing CF) - $5,000

Further to an investigation, the CRTC's Chief Compliance and Enforcement Officer found that Sirius XM Canada hired telemarketers to conduct calls on its behalf. The telemarketers in question made calls to Canadians who were registered on the company's internal do not call list. In the case of Raid, the marketer hired call centres to make calls on behalf of its clients, without ensuring that its clients were registered and subscribed to the National Do Not Call List (DNCL).

The investigation also revealed that four call centres made calls on behalf of their clients to Canadians whose phone numbers are registered on the National DNCL, or their clients' internal do not call lists. Some call centres failed to subscribe to the National DNCL, verify their clients' subscriptions and registrations to the National DNCL, and made calls outside of the designated calling hours.