Do Not Call list under attack, activists say

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Do Not Call list under attack, activists say

Battle brewing as telemarketers ask FCC to nullify tough state laws

By Bob Sullivan

Technology correspondent

MSNBC

Updated: 4:43 p.m. ET July 20, 2005

They’re back. Or they might be, those pesky telemarketing calls, after nearly two years of peaceful, interruption-free dinners. That's the warning a consumer protection group is about to issue.

Legal wrangling threatens to disrupt that dinnertime quiet, according to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which plans to present its concerns to the Federal Communications Commission later this month.  Telemarketing groups are quietly mounting a campaign that would open the door to a floodgate of new calls, EPIC says, pointing to a series of requests filed with the FCC, essentially asking the agency to invalidate state laws regulating the practice.

Telemarketers deny they are trying to pry open the door to a wave of new calls. Industry representatives contend they simply want a single, national rule to follow.

Several industry groups, including powerful banking lobbyists, have come down on the side of the telemarketers. In April an ad-hoc group of firms ranging from the Direct Marketing Association to the National Children's Cancer Society filed a joint petition asking the FCC to declare that it has "exclusive jurisdiction over interstate telemarketing calls." Also signing on to the petition were the American Bankers Association and the Community Bankers Association, two of the nation's biggest financial lobbying groups.

A favorable ruling would open the door for a fresh round of telemarketing calls, EPIC says.

"The phone is going to start ringing off the hook," said EPIC's Chris Hoofnagle.  "What we're talking about here is an exception that allows telemarketers to call people who are on the Do Not Call list."

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