Dish, US Fighting Over Telemarketing Permanent Injunction Hearing

Dish Network is clashing with the FTC, DOJ and four states over an October hearing on a permanent telemarketing injunction that Dish says "would have grave consequences" for its and its retailers' businesses. The U.S. is misstating Dish's decision to decline supplemental discovery, it said, and Dish won't use documents in 2015 supplemental discovery disclosures, but it's "not barred from presenting, and will present, other evidence" against the injunctive relief, Dish said in opposition (in Pacer) filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Springfield, Illinois. The filing was in response to an FTC and Justice Department motion (in Pacer) filed in March seeking to cancel the Oct. 24 hearing. The mandatory injunction issue was bifurcated from the rest of the trial that ended Feb. 24 of robocall allegations brought by the FTC, California, Illinois, North Carolina and Ohio (see 0903260144). Dish said in its filing it originally intended to present evidence during the Phase I trial dealing with the permanent injunction, but the court ordered that the scope of discovery would include nearly six years of call records, which would take a couple of years of discovery, so it opted "to decline to engage in that exercise." Dish said it plans in a permanent injunction hearing to introduce testimony and other evidence from witnesses "that will demonstrate the impracticability of the specific terms of the requested injunction, the adverse impact that it would have on Dish's business and the business of its retailers, and its excessive scope." The FTC and DOJ in their motion said that by choosing not to engage in discovery, the satellite company is waiving reliance on any compliance evidence that would postdate March 2010, the last date of call records it produced in discovery. It also said Dish had plenty of time at the four-week trial that ended Feb. 24 to present compliance evidence and "there is nothing new that Dish can offer at the October hearing except oral testimony about information that was turned over during discovery." In a separate response (in Pacer) Friday, the state plaintiffs said they support the U.S. request, citing Dish declining additional discovery and withdrawing its previously offered analysis. The states also asked that the court keep the Oct. 24 date open for other issues that may come up in discovery that Dish is scheduled to produce April 25.