US District Judge Catherine C. Eagles tripled damages awarded by a North Carolina jury in a lawsuit against Dish Network and telemarketer Satellite Systems Network.

Eagles held that Dish Network had willfully violated the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act by ignoring SSN’s history of TCPA violations and neglecting to monitor or enforce SSN’s compliance with the law even after receiving numerous complaints.

SSN made 51,119 telemarketing calls to numbers on the national Do Not Call Registry on Dish’s behalf in 2010 and 2011. The jury awarded damages of $400 per call. Calling Dish’s TCPA compliance policy “decidedly two-faced,” the judge trebled those damages, resulting in $61.34 million total damages.

“The Court concludes that treble damages are appropriate here because of the need to deter Dish from future violations and the need to give appropriate weight to the scope of the violations,” Eagles wrote.

Plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit were represented by Brian Glasser, John Barrett, and John Roddy of Bailey Glasser, Matthew McCue of Massachusetts, Matthew Norris of Raleigh, NC and Edward A. Broderick and Anthony Paronich of Broderick & Paronich.

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