THE DMA PRAISES FCC FOR
PREEMPTING STATE LAWS ON INTERSTATE CALLS
NEW YORK, July 7, 2003 – The Direct Marketing Association (The DMA) today praised the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for taking a step toward creating a uniform national policy regarding interstate telephone marketing calls.
"The DMA is pleased with the FCC’s clarification that its rules preempt state laws for interstate telemarketing," said Louis Mastria, director of public & international affairs, The DMA. The DMA made its statement after a preliminary review of the FCC's Federal Register notice to implement a national do-not-call registry.
In its Order, the FCC stated, "…any state regulation of interstate telemarketing calls that differs from our rules almost certainly would conflict with and frustrate the federal scheme and almost certainly would be preempted." By clarifying this preemption, the FCC has helped to eliminate possible confusion among marketers and consumers alike concerning the applicable regulation of telemarketing.
The DMA is pleased with efforts by the FCC to create uniformity in the implementation of the new do-not-call registry, but believes that state lists should be entirely preempted.
"By applying the national do-not-call registry to all calls, both interstate and intrastate, there is no justification for continued existence of the state lists." said Mastria. "For a long time, we have urged both the FCC and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to seek uniformity as they implement the list, and we are pleased that they have achieved it in one aspect of the list, but there is more work to do."
The hodge-podge of state-level do-not-call lists will continue to be a source of confusion for consumers and marketers alike and still needs to be resolved. The DMA continues to review the FCC's Federal Register notice and will be providing additional analysis as it becomes available.
There is also additional work that must be done to reduce the prohibitively high proposed cost of the national list. The FTC has proposed a cost of $7,250 for national marketers – a full ten times the amount that The DMA charges marketers for its national list, the Telephone Preference Service.
The DMA is the leading and largest trade association for businesses interested in interactive and database marketing, with more than 4,700 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 $1.7 trillion in 2000, including $110 billion in catalog sales and $28 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.###