The Direct Marketing Association has balked at providing the Federal Communications Commission the telemarketing do-not-call list originally put together by the Federal Trade Commission.
Last Wednesday, FCC chairman Michael K. Powell asked the DMA for help in enforcing compliance after a federal judge barred the FTC, which initiated the program, from implementing it because he said it violates the free-speech rights of telemarketers.
The list contains the names of nearly 51 million consumers who have requested not to receive calls from telemarketers.
In an Oct. 1 letter to Powell, DMA president H. Robert Wientzen contended that because of a court ruling against the list, the DMA “cannot in good conscience ask any member to give the FCC a list under these circumstances.”
Wientzen also said that, given the statements made by the FTC at a Sept. 30 Senate Commerce Committee hearing regarding prosecution for any entity that shares the list, the DMA could not to comply with the FCC’s request.
Early last week, U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham in Denver had ruled that the DNC list was unconstitutional because it restricted commercial telemarketing but not phone solicitations from charities.
Wientzen added: “we have been told by numerous marketers that they cannot comply
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