FCC issues $6 million in DTV fines to Wal-Mart, others

The Federal Communications Commission has exacted fines on retailers found to not be fully advising customers about the DTV transition, including Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Circuit City, and Target; as well as a number of CE manufacturers.

Wal-Mart/Sam's West, Circuit City, Fry's, Target, Sears, K-Mart, and CompUSA were all found to have violated a federal rule on labeling analog TV-related merchandise sold either in-store or on their Web sites, resulting in a total of $3,928,000 in forfeitures.

The rule regards the transitional period from the analog to digital broadcast standard and states that retailers must clearly and conspicuously label when a piece of television merchandise does not contain a digital tuner. That label should read as follows:

This label is intended to prevent consumers from buying any merchandise that will not receive digital signals without additional hardware, as only 60% of U.S. residents were recently shown to be aware of the DTV transition.

Sears Roebuck and its K-Mart subsidiary were cited for the most violations, with 16 Sears stores, its associated Web site, and 27 K-Mart stores all displaying different television receiving equipment without proper labels. This is an addition to a total of 43 prior citations of the same type. The company has to pay $1,096,000 to cover these infractions.

Syntax-Brillian, manufacturers of the Olevia and Vivitar brands, and Precor Inc, a fitness equipment manufacturer, were fined a total of $1.6 million for violating an FCC rule that disallows analog tuner-only equipped goods to be imported and sold. Syntax-Brillian responded to the Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture with a statement claiming, among other things, that the FCC's fines are excessive, violate the Eighth Amendment to the constitution, and are inconsistent with the Commission precedent. Precor responded to its fines by claiming the devices allegedly in violation -- TV screens that integrate with workout equipment -- are not even available for consumer purchase and are sold only to commercial customers.

All companies fined have 30 days to file an appeal.

The third class of violation regards V-Chip functionality in digital receivers. Proview Technology Inc. and Polaroid Corporation were fined a collective $1,075,000 for breaking the following FCC rule: