To slow down the number of dinner-time solicitation calls, more than 21 states including California, Wisconsin, New York, Kentucky, and Florida are enacting or have passed regulations barring solicitors from calling residents who have signed up for do-not-call lists.

Like paying tolls to use new roads, state residents will find that getting relief from telemarketing traffic will cost them money, but it may well be worth it.

Beginning January 1, 2001, the Texas Public Utility Commission will accept registrations from Texas state residents who wish to put their names on a statewide do-not-call list. For a small fee of $2.25 for three years, Texas state residents can mail, call in or e-mail registrations and payments to get on the list. In June, the TPUC will start enforcement.

Administrative costs will be largely passed to the telemarketers, who will need to buy quarterly updates for $45 or face fines up to $1,000 for infractions.

Some exemptions exist for certain businesses. As in the spam regulations on the Internet, enforced by Internet service providers, businesses will be allowed to phone their existing customers. Exemptions also include charities, debt collectors, nonprofit organizations, and state licensed professionals such as attorneys, stockbrokers, insurance agents, mortgage brokers and real estate brokers and agents.

According to Kevin Brosnahan, communications director, for the American Teleservices Association. , Texas' Do-not-call (DNC) regulations look like many other states, with the exception that each state chooses which businesses will and will not be exempt. And that's a problem.

"It could get dicey," says Brosnahan. "You could have multiple exemptions or no exemptions depending on the state you are in. You can imagine what that will be like for a small teleservices company in a five-state area, that has to keep and update five different lists quarterly or annually, or for a company that calls nationwide that has to keep up with fifty-one lists."

One exemption in Alabama is in real estate professionals' favor. The state allows exemptions for sales calls where a sales presentation is made later at a face-to-face meeting. "Most agents aren't going to sell a house over the phone," points out Brosnahan. "All they want to do is set up a time for a presentation."

Brosnahan says that most states, like Texas, are granting exemptions to real estate professionals, but that the issue still bears close watch, due to events at the federal level.

Telemarketers have been under federal watch since 1991 with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which mandates that the companies keep their own lists of people who do not want to be called. That could change with new legislation on the way.

On December 20th, just before the Senate shut down for the holidays, Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) filed S.1881, the Telemarketing Intrusive Practices Act of 2001. Dodd's bill would call for the Federal Trade Commission to establish a national DNC list which would be created and maintained by each state, effectively removing self-regulation from the telemarketers.

Dodd's bill is much more complex, including a Caller ID provision which prevents telesolicitors from knowingly blocking the ID signal or otherwise circumventing them. The bill also proposes some exemptions, but real estate professionals aren't included, unless they qualify as having a preexisting customer relationship with resident who are being called. Suggested exemptions are for politicians, nonprofit, and telephone directory publishers.

That's why Brosnahan believes the bill won't pass as it is. "I think the bill will change and more specifics will be added to it," says Brosnahan. "As written, it will not preempt state lists so we could have as many as 51 different lists, and it addresses issues that require a lot more analysis and public hearings."

While Realtors aren't known as telemarketers, the outcome of the bills could still have an effect on their marketing.

"This should be a concern for everyone who uses the phone," says Brosnahan.

Published: December 31, 2001

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