Caribbean Cruise Line Inc. is being charged for making "billions" of illegal robocalls to sell cruises to the Bahamas, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and 10 state attorneys general. These sales calls were disguised as political surveys in violation of the federal Telemarketing Sales Rule, according to the joint lawsuit. Political survey robocalls to landline phones are exempt from the FTC's do-not-call and robocall rules because they do not attempt to sell anything. Caribbean Cruise Line has agreed to change its business practices and pay a $7.7 million civil penalty to settle this case, although most of that penalty will be suspended after it pays $500,000. When contacted for a comment, the company's attorney emailed a statement to NBC News. It said Caribbean had agreed to allow its complimentary cruise promotion to be used by a group of Political Action Committees (PACs) to increase the response to the survey calls the PACs made during the presidential election of 2012. "Unfortunately, the PACs made calls that were not part of the program that Caribbean had approved," the statement said. Editor's Note: An earlier version of this news summary mischaracterized the nature of the allegations against Caribbean Cruise Lines. We regret the error.
