FTC Settles With 2 More Defendants in Debt-Relief Robocalling Scheme

Netlatitude and its CEO Kurt Hannigan agreed to pay the FTC $325,000 of an $8 million suspended judgment to settle allegations they inundated consumers with debt relief telemarketing calls in violation of the FTC Act and the agency’s Telemarketing Sales Rule, said a stipulated order Friday (docket 3:23-cv-00313) in U.S. District Court for Southern California in San Diego. Netlatitude and Hannigan neither admit nor deny any of the allegations in the FTC’s complaint, said the order. “Only for the purposes of this action,” the defendants “admit the facts necessary to establish jurisdiction,” it said. The FTC’s Feb. 16 complaint alleged Stratics Networks’ outbound calling service enabled its clients to transmit millions of robocalls using VoIP (see 2302170032). From 2013 to 2020, Stratics sold its wholesale session initiation protocol service to other VoIP service companies, including Netlatitude and Hannigan, and “many others,” it said. The allegations remain pending against eight other defendants, including Stratics.