Announced Action for December 23, 2005

Commission authorization of filing of amended complaint: The Commission has authorized the staff to file an amended complaint in the matter currently pending against Del Sol LLC, et al. In April 2005, staff of the FTC’s Division of Enforcement and the Western Region charged Del Sol, LLC, also d/b/a as Del Sol Educational, and its principal, Fernando Lopez Gonzalez, with violating Section 5 of the FTC Act and the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR). At the request of the FTC, the court entered an ex-parte temporary restraining order on the day the complaint was filed and, after a hearing, entered a preliminary injunction on May 24, 2005. The defendants allegedly engaged in a Spanish-language telemarketing operation scamming consumers out of hundreds of dollars with false promises of free laptop computers and digital video cameras and discounts on brand name perfumes and music CDs.

The amended complaint alleges that in conducting this telemarketing scam, the defendants violated the National Do Not Call (DNC) Registry by calling consumers who had registered their telephone numbers on the Registry and by calling numbers within a given area code without first paying the annual fee for access to the DNC Registry. The amended complaint, correcting the name of the principal from “Fernando Lopez Gonzalez” to “Fernando Gonzalez Lopez,” was filed in federal district court on December 8, 2005 and entered by the court on December 13, 2005.

The Commission vote authorizing the staff to file the amended complaint was 4-0. (FTC File No. X050045; the staff contact is Janice Frankle, Bureau of Consumer Protection, 202-326-3022; see press release dated May 17, 2005.)

Copies of the documents mentioned in this release are available from the FTC’s Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and also from the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580. Call toll-free: 1-877-FTC-HELP.