Sprint agreed to pay $7.5 million, a record fine,...

Sprint agreed to pay $7.5 million, a record fine, to end an FCC investigation over whether the company violated the agency’s do-not-call rules, the FCC said Monday. The carrier agreed to a two-year plan to ensure compliance with commission requirements protecting consumer privacy (http://fcc.us/Tmxs52). “We expect companies to respect the privacy of consumers who have opted out of marketing calls,” said Travis LeBlanc, Enforcement Bureau acting chief. “Today’s settlement leaves no question that protecting consumer privacy is a top enforcement priority.” “This consent decree relates to issues resulting from technical and inadvertent human errors, which Sprint reported to the FCC,” a Sprint spokeswoman said in an e-mail. “We have conducted a thorough, top-to-bottom evaluation of our Do Not Call data management systems, and significant capital investments have been made to improve our Do Not Call/SMS Message architecture, oversight and compliance."