The Direct Marketing Association has filed a petition with the Federal Trade Commission to loosen its rules on call abandonment for telemarketers and make them the same as those of the Federal Communications Commission.
Both agencies regulate different parts of the telemarketing industry.
Specifically, the DMA is asking the FTC to revise its current method for calculating abandoned calls from a per-day, per-campaign measurement to the per-30 day measurement adopted by the FCC.
“Harmonizing the abandoned call standard of the two agencies can clarify the underlying restrictions on abandoned calls and impose realistic obligations on those telemarketers who use predictive dialing equipment,” said DMA spokesman Lou Mastria.
The DMA argued, in a statement, that a wider use of the FCC’s standard would lead to fewer disconnected calls. In addition, telemarketers would be allowed to more effectively manage their calling campaigns because they will allow for variations in telemarketing campaigns, such as calling times, number of operators available and number of telephone lines used.
“While there haven’t been any actions against telemarketers yet, a lot of them are confused about these rules,” noted Mastria.
He conceded that the FTC has no limit on when it must respond to this petition but said the DMA plans no further action at this time.
Separately, the American Teleservices Association (ATA) last Friday filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the constitutionality of the National Do Not Call Registry, arguing that the registry discriminates against commercial speech while permitting charitable, nonprofit, political and religious entities to continue calling.
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