FTC Hangs Up on Telemarketers' Pitch

by Mike Bevel, CollectionIndustry.com

The Federal Trade Commission handed down a resounding “Not so much” to U.S. telemarketing industry earlier this month. Lobbyists for telemarketers had asked permission to allow pre-recorded calls to consumers without their expressed consent.

The request seems to fly both in the face of reason and the National “Do Not Call” registry. "The Do-Not-Call list has been enormously successful," Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a District-based group that monitors privacy issues and filed comments against the industry request, told the Washington Post. "More people signed up for it than voted in the last election — Bush and Kerry combined. It's a very clear statement Americans don't want to hear from telemarketers."

Using a 2004 petition filed by Voice Message Broadcasting Corp., the FTC decided it wouldn't allow companies to use taped calls, even if they claimed a "prior business relationship" with the consumer. The only way around the ruling, the agency proposed, would be if the customer consented in writing that he was willing to accept such calls.

Which, of course, would not be very likely. Hence the telemarketing industry trying to win one for the team with its pre-recorded calls salvo.

In denying the petition, the FTC cited concerns that permitting prerecorded calls would recreate the problems that led to the Do-Not-Call list. Allowing such calls, and using the Internet to make them, it said, could dramatically increase the number of calls to consumers because the costs to companies making or paying for the calls would be minimal.

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