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FTC Proposing National Do-Not-Call List

December 18, 2002
The Federal Trade Commission is proposing a national Do Not Call registry to protect consumers from unwanted telemarketing calls. Telemarketers are not amused and are planning to fight the measure in Congress and the courts.

Consumers would dial a toll-free number or go to an FTC Web site to place themselves on the list. Telemarketers would be required to check the list and update their records periodically. They would face fines of up to $11,000 for each call made to consumers on the list, The Washington Post report.

The Direct Marketing Association, the leading telemarketing trade group, was quick to denounce the plan, calling it "unlawful in a number of respects."

It would cost consumers nothing to be on the list and the FTC estimates that about 60 million Americans would sign up. The FTC reportedly plans to charge telemarketers about $16 million in fees to pay the costs of setting up the system. Telemarketers would also pay an annual fee. A large operator might pay as much as $8,000 per year, the Post said.

The FTC's action follows years of inaction by the Federal Communications Commission, which has broader authority to regulate telecommunications. The FTC's jurisdiction is limited and its registry would not inclue calls made by telecommunications companies, financial services firms or insurance companies.

The FCC declined to create a national leave-me-alone list ten years ago, saying it would be too expensive and too difficult to enforce. But after a decade of increasing complaints from the public, the agency is having second thoughts.

The FCC says it received more than 11,000 complaints from consumers about telemarketing in a recent two-year period and its Web site's page on telemarketing rules counted 162,000 hits in a single month. The next most popular page, on telephone bill charges, tallied only 5,000 hits, a spokesman said.

The FTC's proposal would establish a single toll-free number that consumers could call to have their names and numbers removed from telemarketing lists. There would be an $11,000 fine for calling anyone on the list.

However, any attempt to set up a national Do Not Call registry will meet stiff opposition from the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), a powerful trade group that operates its own "Telephone Preference Service" list of more than 4.5 million consumers who have said they do not want to receive telemarketing calls at home.

The DMA contends that there's no need for the government to intrude into an issue that private industry is able to handle on its own, and it says the proposed rules may unconstitutionally restrict companies' free speech rights. In the past, industry leaders have also said telemarketing operations would simply move offshore, beyond the reach of U.S. laws.

About 27 states have adopted their own Do Not Call lists but since many telemarketing calls are placed by out-of-state call banks, the state efforts have not been universally successful.

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