| Comment Number: | OL-102566 |
| Received: | 11/27/2004 11:09:41 PM |
| Organization: | |
| Commenter: | John Nagle |
| State: | CA |
| Subject: | Trade Regulation Rule on Telemarketing Sales |
| Title: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Request for Comment |
| CFR Citation: | 16 CFR Part 310 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
The proposed amendments to the Telemarketing Sales Rule are undesirable. They create consumer confusion, in that consumers now expect that the do not call list means that they should not receive any marketing calls whatsoever. The FTC should act consistent with that expectation. The notion of an established business relationship has historically been abused by telemarketers. Recognizing this, the FCC has sunset the established business relationship exception to the TCPA rules involving unsolicited faxes. After June 30, 2005, the FCC requires a signed statement by the recipient, specifying a specific telephone number, before a marketing-related fax can be sent to that recipient. (Ref FCC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, June 26, 2003, revising 47 C.F.R. 64.1200(a)(3)(i)) Since the petitioner has proposed that the FTC should follow the FCC in this area, it would be appropriate for the FTC at this time to similarly sunset its established business relationship exception. This will simplify compliance for business by providing a consistent rule across agencies. As for the predictive dialing issue, the marketplace has already provided several commercial predictive dialer systems which are advertised as capable of complying with current FTC regulations. Thus, no relaxation of FTC rules is required in this area.