Retailers Fined For Digital TV Offenses

The FCC today handed down some fines to several retailers for failing to properly label soon to be obsolete analog TVs. The FCC requires all analog TV equipment to have a warning label that they will not be able to receive broadcast signal after the Digital TV switchover on Feb. 17, 2009.
Sears Holdings Corp. looks like the most egregious offender with nearly $1.1 million in fines; Wal-Mart was fined $992,000; Circuit City, $712,000; Best Buy, Fry's Electronics Inc. and CompUSA Inc. were assessed fines between $168,000 to $384,000.
In many instances the failure to label may very well have been unintentional due to the fact that most retailers have already voluntarily pulled all analog TV products from shelves to avoid customer confusion. Sears --fined for 15 of its stores, its Web site and 20 Kmart stores--said it was "surprised" by the FCC's action and had eliminated analog inventory from its stores last fall and will soon offer converter boxes. No explanation as to how unlabeled analog TV products were on the shelves in so many of its stores (not to mention its website) was given.

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