It's the biggest sum of money ever paid to North Carolina for a violation of the do-not-call list, Attorney General Josh Stein said on Monday.
Stein said that in addition to the money, Dish Network agreed to change its telemarketing strategies.
"Companies cannot use aggressive tactics to take people's hard-earned money," he said in a news release. "That's why do-not-call and telemarketing protections exist, and I'll continue fighting to hold companies and bad actors accountable when they violate these protections and go after North Carolinians."
This is one of several consumer protection lawsuits in which Stein, a Democrat, is representing North Carolina.
North Carolina, California, Illinois, Ohio and the Federal Trade Commission banded together to sue Dish Network over allegations that it was behind more than 65 million illegal spam calls from 2003 to 2011, Reuters reported Friday.
They initially won the lawsuit at trial in 2017, when Dish was ordered to pay $280 million. The company had been fighting that decision, however — until Friday, when federal court filings in Illinois showed the two sides agreed to a $210 million settlement, Reuters reported. Most of the money went to the federal government and the four states split the rest.
North Carolina will receive around $14 million, Stein said Monday, and nearly all of it will go toward funding public schools. Stein said he hopes the money will be spent specifically on helping ensure students have reliable Internet access, instead of having to leave home to find a Wi-Fi connection.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, many schools around the state have switched to remote, online-only classes. But not all families were prepared for that switch: The News & Observer reported in September that "at least 100,000 students still lack a reliable Internet connection at home."
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper said at the time that $40 million of the federally funded CARES Act stimulus money for North Carolina would go toward trying to address the problem. Stein said Monday that the Dish robocall settlement money should be used for similar purposes.
However, the final decision isn't Stein's to make. It will be up to the state legislature to decide.
"There are children across our state who are doing their virtual learning classes from library parking lots and other unacceptable situations," Stein said. "I urge the legislature to consider ways to use these funds to address broadband access in North Carolina. Education is the best way to invest in our children's futures and to level the playing field — access to reliable Internet is imperative to students' success."
In addition to its well-known satellite TV operations, Dish also owns the wireless carrier Boost Mobile and the Sling TV streaming service.
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