The FCC handed out a whole basketful of fines to electronics retailers today: $1.1 million for Sears and Kmart; $992,000 for Wal-Mart; $712,000 for Circuit City; and amounts between $168,000-384,000 for Target, Best Buy, CompUSA, and Fry’s Electronics. What made Christmas come so early? They were all failing to warn consumers that analog-only TVs and tuners will stop working on their own when the digital switchover comes next year.

Best Buy told the Chicago Tribune that they were “extremely disappointed” by the fine because they’d made a good faith effort to pull all analog-only tuners off the sales floor last October. As for some of the other companies, “Wal-Mart did not immediately comment, while a message to Sears was not returned.” That’s probably because Sears’ phone has been disconnected for failure to pay its bill.

“Sears, Wal-Mart, others fined for analog TV labeling” [Chicago Tribune] (Thanks to Tim!)
(Photo: Getty)

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