he Federal Trade Commission issued proposed rules yesterday restricting telemarketing calls to consumers, including plans for a nationwide registry of people who do not want to receive such sales calls. Telemarketers that phone people on the list would face fines up to $11,000 for each violation.
The new regulations, which have been in preparation for a year, would also restrict how telemarketers use automated calling machines that dial consumers based on calculations of when agents will be free to talk to them.
The technology, which eliminates waits between calls for the marketing agents, results in silence and disconnections if a consumer answers before a marketer is available. The new rules fine marketers if more than 3 percent of calls do not connect the person called directly to an agent, and they require the marketer to play a tape identifying the call if an agent is not available.
The rules also bar telemarketers from disguising the number from which they are calling and limit the ability of marketers to share credit card data. And it forbids marketers from using card data they have on file to place an order if the consumer does not give them the card data again during the call. The rule includes calls where the offer is for services or products that have a free trial period.
The rules will protect consumer privacy in the home and curtail telemarketing fraud, according to Timothy J. Muris, the chairman of the F.T.C.
But he warned that the "do not call" registry would take at least seven months to become effective, that consumers in some states might not be part of it right away, and that it would not be set up at all unless Congress approved the agency's proposal to finance the registry with fees raised from telemarketers. Covering the estimated $16 million cost of the registry with funds already appropriated would wreck enforcement of other laws, Mr. Muris said.
He also said his agency expected the Federal Communications Commission to follow through on its proposal to adopt similar rules covering telemarketing by phone companies and other businesses it regulates. Mr. Muris added that the rules would not pre-empt do-not-call registries already set up by many states, but said that nearly all the states were likely to join the national system.
The telemarketing industry's largest trade group, the Direct Marketing Association, said it would oppose the new rules both in court and on Capitol Hill. The association said they violate the free-speech rights of its members and in the long run drive up costs for consumers.
H. Robert Wientzen, president and chief executive of the association, said in a statement, "While we acknowledge abuses by some telemarketing companies, the proposed F.T.C. list is an inappropriate and unnecessary government intrusion into the private sector marketplace that will increase federal spending and cost jobs."
Direct marketers made about 104 million calls a day and reported revenue of nearly $300 billion last year, according to the association. Mr. Wientzen said they employ 4.1 million workers, including many students, single parents and former welfare recipients who need flexible hours.
Telemarketers have argued that the federal regulations are unnecessary in part because the industry-supported Telephone Preference Service has effectively eliminated more than 80 percent of the calls to the 7.5 million people who have signed up for that free registry, online at www.thedma.org.
But consumer advocates and privacy experts said the industry's voluntary system lacked good remedies for consumers and was not as widely followed as the industry says.
The new rules contain exemptions for charities, political campaigns and for companies that have done business with the consumers they are calling in the previous 18 months. Nor do they cover telemarketing within the boundaries of a state.
Such loopholes "will cause confusion and anger for consumers that thought they would be finally left alone," said Robert Arkow, founder of an advocacy group called Californians Against Telephone Solicitation.
Mr. Muris of the F.T.C. expressed confidence that the national registry would gain quick Congressional approval. He said that a registry would be set up on a state-by-state basis and that consumers could sign up at no cost by going to commission's Web site (www.ftc.gov/donotcall) or in coming months by phoning a toll-free number.