The DMA Expresses Concern Over Proposal For Marketers To Finance National Do Not Call List
NEW YORK, May 28, 2002 - The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) today expressed its concern over the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC's) recent proposal that would require telemarketers to help finance a national do not call registry by paying an annual fees of as much as $3,500 per year.
"As predicted, the FTC has shown that they have not fully worked out the details in their efforts to provide what we consider a superfluous but politically popular service to consumers," said Jerry Cerasale, senior vice president, government affairs, The DMA. "To propose such measures - especially this late in the process - is not only counterproductive to our own industry’s self-regulation efforts, but also creates a huge financial burden for marketers who work industriously to honor consumers’ privacy preferences."
"This poorly thought-out proposal is nothing more than a tax on American business, which will only be passed on to consumers. The FTC is simply creating a new bureaucracy on the backs of the consuming public," Cerasale added.
The DMA believes that the FTC’s proposal for a national list is unnecessary considering the direct and interactive marketing industry’s effective efforts at industry self-regulation. To date, more than 4.5 million people have signed up for The DMA’s Telephone Preference Service, which provides an 80% reduction in the number of national telemarketing sales calls.
The FTC, which proposed a national do not call registry in January, estimates that the list would cost an estimated $5 million in its first year to maintain.
The DMA is the leading trade association for businesses interested in interactive and database marketing, with nearly 5,000 member companies from the United States and 53 other nations. Founded in 1917, its members include direct marketers from every business segment as well as the nonprofit and electronic marketing sectors. Included are catalogers, Internet retailers and service providers, financial services providers, book and magazine publishers, book and music clubs, retail stores, industrial manufacturers and a host of other vertical segments, including the service industries that support them. According to a DMA-commissioned study, direct and interactive marketing sales in the United States exceeded $1.86 trillion in 2001, including $118 billion in catalog sales and $30 billion in sales generated by the Internet. The DMA's Web site is
www.the-dma.org, and its consumer Web site is www.shopthenet.org.###