The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has issued a stipulated order against Response Tree LLC and its president, Derek Thomas Doherty, following allegations of violating the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR). The order, entered today, stems from the defendants’ involvement in illegal telemarketing campaigns, functioning as an unlawful lead generator and consent farm.
Response Tree and Doherty are now prohibited from breaching the TSR and from collecting or selling covered information, including consumers’ personal details, in relation to lead generation. Additionally, the court has imposed a $7 million civil penalty judgment against them, which is currently suspended due to the defendants’ demonstrated inability to pay.
The complaint, filed on January 2, accused Response Tree and Doherty of acquiring consumer information and purported consent for receiving certain types of telephone calls, including robocalls and calls to numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry. The defendants allegedly operated over 50 websites that deceptively prompted consumers to provide personal data under the guise of services like mortgage refinancing. This consumer data was then sold to various sellers, resulting in a flood of illegal robocalls to American consumers, many of whom had registered on the Do Not Call list.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton of the Justice Department’s Civil Division declared the order a significant win in efforts to protect consumers from illegal robocalls and to dismantle operations that facilitate such calls. The Justice Department, in collaboration with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), remains committed to enforcing the TSR.
FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Samuel Levine emphasized the role of Response Tree in enabling millions of illegal telemarketing calls by deceitfully gathering and selling consumer information. The FTC vows to continue targeting all aspects of the illegal telemarketing network to safeguard consumers and hold perpetrators accountable.
The case was managed by the Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch, with significant contributions from Trial Attorney Rowan Reid, Assistant Director Rachael Doud, and the FTC’s Division of Marketing Practices staff.