Problem: A large company (XYZ) owns a local telephone service. XYZ company allows the telephone service company to run 900 numbers for dating services, chat lines, and psychic hot lines. These charges often blend into the small print on the bill and are shown as charges from the XYZ company instead of the dating service, chat line, etc. Let's say for the sake of argument that the Smiths did not check their bill and was not aware until they were contacted about the deliquent charges. And the 12 year old grandson made the calls. I am writing a paper on the legal and ethical environment involving consumers. They have since hired an attorney.
1. The Smith's did not follow the guidelines as indicated on FTC Rule Helps Consumers concerning 900 numbers. Would they still have laws to protect them from these types of practices? Need web sites to use to answer this question and document my findings.
2. What policies should XYZ company have in place to address future problems. Please advise web sites to document these policy recommendations.