The national do-not-call list overcame its last legal hurdle today when the Supreme Court let stand a lower-court ruling affirming its constitutionality.
Without comment, the justices rejected an appeal by telemarketers who argued that the popular anti-telemarketing registry imposed unconstitutional limits on their rights to free speech.
| | | | ___Tech Policy/Security E-letter___ Written by washingtonpost.com's tech policy team, the e-mail version of this weekly feature includes an original news article and links to policy and cyber-security stories from the previous week.
• Click Here for Free Sign-up
• Read E-letter Archive
| | | | | | |
|
In the year since it took effect, more than 64 million telephone numbers have been posted to the list, according to the Federal Trade Commission, which is in charge of enforcing the list. Telemarketers risk a fine of up to $11,000 for each number they call on the list.
More than 500,000 complaints have been filed with the FTC against more than 130,000 companies said to have made telemarketing calls to numbers on the list. About 200 companies are repeated offenders with 100 or more complaints each.
Despite these complaints, surveys show that the list is working. In one study done last summer by the Customer Care Alliance, 87 percent of consumers who registered said they received fewer phone calls; these consumers received an average 30 sales calls in a month before the list was put into effect. Now they ware receiving six.
So far, the FTC and the Federal Communications Commission, which also polices the do-not-call list, have brought only a handful of actions against telemarketers. The FTC filed suit against a credit repair firm that was allegedly masquerading as a nonprofit debt negotiation firm to get around the government's do-not-call rules. It also is seeking civil penalties against a telemarketing firm for calling more than 300,000 numbers on the registry to sell time-share properties in Atlantic City.
In an FCC settlement, the McLean phone provider Primus Telecommunications Group Inc. agreed to pay $400,000 to settle allegations that it violated the registry.
The appeal to the Supreme Court was sought by the American Teleservices Association, which represents about 650 call centers that make sales calls, usually on behalf of other businesses.
In February, three judges in a Denver appeals court unanimously ruled that the do-not-call list was a valid restraint of commercial speech because it "targets speech that invades the privacy of the home, a personal sanctuary that enjoys a unique status in our constitutional jurisprudence."
The appeals court decision overturned an earlier ruling by a federal judge who found the list unconstitutional because it barred commercial solicitations while allowing calls from politicians and charities. The appeals court said such a distinction was merited because the government had found that commercial callers are more likely to engage in prospective and abusive practices.
ATA's executive director Tim Searcy said his group was disappointed by the ruling. "Many companies have folded and jobs have been lost," he said. But, he added, "we are not discouraged and will continue the struggle to achieve a balance of consumer and business rights," by seeking to iron out inconsistencies in state and federal telemarketing rules.
The larger telemarketing group, the Direct Marketing Association, which represents 4,700 marketers that make the products sold by the call centers, declined to appeal, saying it did not want to risk more bad publicity.
