FCC Accuses 6 Chains of Analog Labeling Violations
The FCC was quick to enforce a May 25 order requiring retailers to post “consumer alerts” next to legacy analog- only TV products. The Commission released Thurs. copies of official citations sent this week to Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Kmart, RadioShack and Target, warning the 6 chains they're violating the order because their e-commerce sites don’t carry the alerts on products that require them.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
The FCC will levy stiff fines if the violations aren’t corrected, the citations said. Fines may not exceed $11,000 for each violation or each day of a continuing violation, up to $97,500 for a single continuing violation, they said. Each company 10 days to answer the allegations in writing or at the closest FCC field office, they said.
Alerts should have run with 26 products that lacked them, according to FCC Enforcement Bureau investigators who checked the chains’ e-commerce sites the past 2 weeks, the citations said. The earliest scan was at RadioShack.com on May 31, the citations said. That’s only 6 days after the order went into effect. No allegations in the citations seem to be based on physical store visits. Of the chains cited, Circuit City had the most alleged violations, 10.
But Circuit City’s site apparently was alone among the 6 that already have corrected the violation, we found late Thurs. All 10 entries at the Circuit City site allegedly found in violation when the FCC visited the site June 5 carried alerts when we checked. “Circuit City is committed to providing consumers with accurate and reliable information about the products we sell and we are working with the FCC to ensure that required signage is posted properly,” a spokesman told us. Queries to the other chains went unanswered.
CompUSA and RadioShack were cited on a violation each. CompUSA’s was for an Olevia-brand 32W LCD TV (model LT32HVE), one of several models the FCC cited in a separate action accusing Syntax-Brillian of “willful and repeated” violations of the DTV tuner mandate. Target also was accused of selling the LT32HVE online without a consumer alert -- one of 8 violations alleged against the chain.