The FTC announced today that it, along with 10 state attorneys general, have settled most of the charges in a lawsuit they previously brought against Caribbean Cruise Line, Inc. and several affiliates for illegally selling cruise vacations using a political survey robocalls component. Apparently, the defendants thought they could get away with combining  their sales pitches with a political survey (which are generally not covered by the FTC’s do-not-call and robocall rules).

According to the complaint, the defendant’s robocall campaign ran for around nine months and delivered approximately 12-15 million illegal sales calls a day. The cruise line, the companies who placed the robocalls, and several other entities that assisted and facilitated the illegal calls were all named in the complaint.  Settlements and stipulated court orders have now been entered with most of the defendants, imposing millions of dollars of civil penalties, portions of which have been suspended due to inability to pay on the part of some of the entities and individuals.