A U.S. court struck down a federal
regulation barring telemarketers from calling homes listed on a
do-not-call registry, ruling that the Federal Trade Commission
had no authority to set the rule.
U.S. District Judge Lee R. West in Oklahoma City found that
Congress never explicitly authorized the commission to create the
registry. More than 48 million consumers signed up for the list
by the initial deadline earlier this month, including 6 million
in the final 72 hours.
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“Contrary to the court’s decision, we firmly believe
Congress gave the FTC authority to implement the national do-not-
call list,” said representatives John Dingell and W.J. “Billy”
Tauzin in a joint statement. “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.”
More than 60 million telephone numbers were expected in the registry barring calls from telemarketers. The rule would have
banned calls to numbers on the list starting Oct. 1, with fines
as high as $11,000 per violation. The FTC recently estimated that
there are 166 million residential phone numbers in the country.
The FTC had no immediate comment on the decision, which was
handed down Tuesday and made public yesterday. The suit challenging
the rule was brought by a group of telemarketers and the Direct
Marketing Association.
Bloomberg News
