| Comment Number: | 525547-00283 |
| Received: | 12/7/2006 8:21:01 PM |
| Organization: | attorney |
| Commenter: | Michael Worsham |
| State: | MD |
| Subject: | Telemarketing Sales Rule |
| Title: | Request for Public Comment |
| CFR Citation: | 16 CFR Part 310 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
The FTC's proposal would in part run counter to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which makes it unlawful "to initiate any telephone call to any residential telephone line using an artificial or prerecorded voice to deliver message without the prior express consent of the called party." 227 USC 227(b)(1)(B). An exemption for pre-recorded voice solicitations delivered to answering machines rather than to a live person is not consistent with the TCPA, which targets even the initiation, not just delivery, of such calls, to address harms such as the ringing of the phone. Only proposals to strengthen consumer protection should be considered by the FTC. This is necessary due to the never ending inventiveness of those who will use cheap and increasingly sophisticated technology to deliver pre-recorded voice solicitation messages using any argment (and at times false or questionable evidence) they can come up with to continue calling.