New York has raised the maximum fine for violators of the state's do-not-call list yesterday to $5,000 per violation, up from $2,000, the state Consumer Protection Board said.
Gov. George Pataki won legislative approval for the higher fines as part of the passage of the New York state budget. The Consumer Protection Board said it would use the increased fines to crack down on telemarketers who have been repeat offenders of the New York DNC list.
A recent study by the Information Policy Institute, announced this month by the New York Consumer Protection Board, showed that three in 10 of all households in New York are registered for the state's DNC list. A total of 2.09 million phone lines and 1.7 million households are registered for the list, the most of any state with a DNC law.
Only Connecticut and Kentucky have such a high percentage of their total households registered to their DNC lists.
