| Comment Number: | OL-102773 |
| Received: | 11/28/2004 12:40:01 AM |
| Organization: | |
| Commenter: | M Lewis |
| 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:
Being an individual who has worked for telephone companies, and being very aware of telecommunication law and practice, I think I speak for the vast majority of telephone service end users when I say that any proposed change to telemarketing law which allows for the use of an EBR to allow direct marketers to further break through the Do Not Call list would likely serve to completely undermine the entire purpose of the list. The entire point of a "Do Not Call" list is to allow telecommunication product (telephone) end users to state clearly and concisely that they are not interested in receiving telemarketing calls in any way, shape, or form. If someone has gone to the trouble of adding themselves to this list, you can safely assume that they are adamant about their desire to be left alone in their homes, free of intrusive telephone calls from any party. An EBR is far too easily explained away through fine print, meaning that this proposal would literally negate the entire purpose of the Do Not Call list. This was taken into consideration by the drafters of the TCPA, or Telephone Consumer Protection Act. A portion of this law protects consumers from receiving junk fax, and even companies with an EBR are restricted by it. I have filed multiple suits under this law against multiple defendants (with whom I had no EBR at all), winning every case I've filed. If EBR excused these defendants, they could have simply claimed that I had done business with an affiliate of theirs and likely gotten off the hook. Any business, should they even remotely try, can prove EBR to satisfactory levels simply by partnering with companies whose entire reason for existence is to distribute this type of data. For instance, you buy something online from a popular website. This website notes in the fine print of the purchase agreement that they may share your data with their affiliates. You now have an EBR with an entire web of "affiliates", which expands into larger webs of "affiliates", and so on and so forth. Your presence on the DNC is now completely irrelevant, as any company that calls you can claim EBR through their web of affiliation that eventually leads back to your original website. This amendment is simply a last-ditch effort by direct marketers that have finally been forced to stop calling people who don't want to be called. For years, the DMA has claimed that they don't want to call people who don't want to receive the calls, saying that they obviously receive no benefit in doing so. This is not true. In selling their services, they need to advertise that they can reach a certain number of homes. As the DNC list population increases, their numbers go down, and they lose money and effectiveness. They *DO* want to call people who don't want to be called, and this amendment proposal clearly shows that. Why on earth would they want to specifically push legislation that allows them to penetrate a "Do Not Call" list if they were being truthful in their statements about avoiding these people? They truly do not care whatsoever if anyone wants to be called or not. They want to call everyone. This proposal is simply the first of many bites that the DMA will be attempting to take out of relatively solid legislation that finally, after all of these years, is starting to keep people's phones from ringing with unwanted calls on the other end. As a telecommunications businessperson, as a consumer, and as an individual who has had to study telecommunications law and file suit to get telemarketers and fax spammers to leave me alone, I urge you to not give any slack to the DMA. These laws are restrictive for a reason, and if you give them an inch, they're going to take a mile. It's called the "Do Not Call" list for a reason. It's a simple three word statement that any consumer can make that means "Leave me alone." I ask the FTC to respect the privacy of Americans everywhere, protect us from these invasive telemarketers, and don't break the DNC list