Rent-A-Center must offer free converter boxes to customers who bo...
Rent-A-Center must offer free converter boxes to customers who bought or rented an analog-only TV, VCR or DVD recorder May 29 through Aug. 7, 2007, to settle allegations with the FCC it violated the commission’s analog-only labeling order, according…
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to a consent decree released Friday. Conn’s, in a second consent decree released Friday, agreed to participate in the DTV coupon program and to stop selling analog-only TV receivers this year or risk running up monthly fines. Rent-A-Center also has agreed to pay a $60,000 fine to settle the charges, it said. For Conn’s, $70,000 is the upfront fine it has agreed to pay, but the financial penalties mount if it stays in the analog TV business. Conn’s must stop selling analog-only TVs this year and by Sept. 1 will start paying the FCC $1,500 a month for every month it fails to do so. An NTIA spokesman erred Thursday when he told us BJ'S Wholesale Club, which under its consent decree also agreed to join the coupon program, was not a participating retailer. In fact, NTIA’s own data shows BJ’s has over 300 stores actively redeeming coupons. The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau didn’t respond to our requests for comment whether the commission has jurisdiction to require a retailer to participate in the coupon program when the DTV statute gave only NTIA the authority to run the program. Forcing a retailer to participate in the program also seems to run counter to NTIA rules that make retail participation voluntary. NTIA has declined comment on our queries.