Judge Blocks Do-not-call List

A federal judge has ruled that the Federal Trade Commission overstepped its authority in creating the national do-not-call list against telemarketers. The ruling, Wednesday, Sept. 23, came in a lawsuit brought by telemarketers who challenged the list of 50 million people who said they do not want to receive business solicitation calls. The list was to go into effect Oct. 1.

U.S. District Judge Lee R. West said the main issue in the case was “whether the FTC had the authority to promulgate a national do-not-call registry. The court finds it did not.”

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin, R-La., and Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., said Wednesday they were confident the ruling would be overturned and believe Congress did give the FTC the necessary authority. “We will continue to monitor the situation and will take whatever legislative action is necessary to ensure consumers can stop intrusive calls from unwanted telemarketers,” they said in a joint statement. The House committee authorized the list.

Calls to the FTC were not immediately returned Wednesday.

So, how would the do-not-call registry have impacted the work of landscape professionals?

The green industry is not heavily driven by telephone sales. In fact, according to a Lawn & Landscape Online poll, nearly 71 percent of those polled said they have never used telemarketing to secure new accounts. However, some lawn care companies do rely on telemarketing to grow their customer base. Almost 22 percent of those polled said they had, at some point, resorted to telemarketing methods for new sales – and half of that group said they still use the telephone technique to seek sales.

Direct Marketing Association Inc., one of the plaintiffs, said it was happy with the ruling, even though it “acknowledges the wishes of millions of U.S. consumers who have expressed their preferences not to receive telephone-marketing solicitations — as evidenced by the millions of phone numbers registered on the FTC list.”

DMA, U.S. Security, Chartered Benefit Services Inc., Global Contact Services Inc. and InfoCision Management Corp filed the suit.

The telemarketing industry estimates the do-not-call list could cut its business in half, costing it up to $50 billion in sales each year.

More than a dozen states with do-not-call lists planned to add their lists to the national registry this summer, the FTC said.

 Telemarketers would have to check the list every three months to see who doesn’t want to be called. Those who call listed people could be fined up to $11,000 for each violation.

Source: Associated Press, with added information from Lawn & Landscape Online