Session 2003 Budget and Taxes Business Environment Higher Education K-12 Education Health and Welfare Public Safety Stadium Transportation Audio Tighter telemarketing restrictions face tough sledding at Capitol (story audio) Photos No fan of "Do Not Call" Your Voice Join the conversation with other MPR listeners in the News Forum.

	E-mail this page			Print this page

Tighter telemarketing restrictions face tough sledding at Capitol
by Michael Khoo, Minnesota Public Radio
February 10, 2003

Craig Carpenter, the president of Custom Remodeling in Lino Lakes, says his firm makes thousands of calls a day to drum up new business. (MPR Photo/Michael Khoo)

An attempt to tighten restrictions on telemarketers is drawing intense criticism from Minnesota's business interests. Last year, lawmakers created a "Do Not Call" list, meant to block unwanted telephone solicitations. Although the list went into effect last month, some legislators think too many calls will slip through. But opponents of tougher limits say it will cost the economy in jobs and growth.

St. Paul, Minn. — After years of wrangling, the Legislature last year finally adopted a "Do Not Call" list. The response has been overwhelming, with roughly half of Minnesota's 2.2 million residential phone lines subscribed to the service.

Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, says consumers may not realize that the law doesn't block all telemarketing calls. "Any telemarketer with any kind of common sense who wants to find a loophole in the law can find a loophole in the law. It's that obvious the ways you can do it. I'd be troubled to find somebody who couldn't find a loophole in the law that they could use."

The law allows for businesses to call households with which they have a prior relationship; that could include banks, insurance agents, or phone companies that have provided services in the past. Marty introduced a bill that would restrict that practice by denying solicitors the use of computer-assisted dialing equipment.

Marty also says telemarketers can now make unsolicitied calls in order to establish a relationship, then follow up with a sales-pitch at a later date. In fact, that tactic is already expressly allowed if the follow-up is done in person. Marty's plan would make such calls illegal.

But companies that depend on phone solicitations say the additional restrictions would cripple their businesses.

To what point do we continue down this path where we have to have government solve every irritant in our world for us? - Sen. Mark Ourada, R-Buffalo

Craig Carpenter, the president of Custom Remodeling in Lino Lakes, says his firm makes thousands of calls a day to drum up new business. Without that option, he says it's not just the phone operators who would suffer. "What happens with the other hundreds and thousands of people in my firm? What happens to the guy who gets on the roof and puts the shingles on? What happens to the sider? What happens to the window guys? What happens to the guy who makes the cabinets and the countertop people and everybody else?" Carpenter said.

Several lawmakers also took a dim view of the proposed new limitations. Sen. Mark Ourada, R-Buffalo, says technologies, such as Caller ID and voicemail, allow households to protect themselves from unwanted phone calls. And, he says, there's always the option of simply not answering the phone.

"To what point do we continue down this path where we have to have government solve every irritant in our world for us? It just gets to be way, way, way too many restrictions on all kinds of people, individuals, businesses, organizations," Ourada said.

Sen. Steve Kelley, DFL-Hopkins, says telemarketing impose on cost on households which would rather not receive them. He says as technologies have made it cheaper and easier to reach consumers at home, consumers are spending more time, energy, and money attempting to block or weed out unwelcome solicitations. And Kelley says the telephone isn't the only way to attract customers.

"We haven't tried to control junk mail, and I don't know that we could in this Legislature. There are channels for reaching the kind of customers you've talked about. All that Sen. Marty's bill would do is say that you can't do it by telephone," Kelley said.

Marty's bill remains on hold in a Senate committee. Last year, many of his provisions were approved by the Senate but jettisoned when the bill was negotiated with House members. House Republicans may be similarly wary of the proposals this time around.

News Headlines

Related Subjects