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Pushpa Girimaji writes on the need for a law to protect consumers from telemarketeers YOU are in the midst of a meeting in the office. Your cell phone rings. You answer, thinking it might be an important call. The voice at the other end asks you if you would like to invest in an insurance policy. You are entertaining guests at home and this time the call is from a private telecom company trying to sell their internet connection. You patiently explain to the person that you have already bought the connection from the same company. In the next one week, you get 10 calls from different people representing the same company, each of them asking you to buy the internet connection. Telemarketing is becoming a big nuisance, an irritant. Someone wants you to buy their credit card, yet another wants you to take a car loan. And they are also trying to extract personal information from you. If they are trying to get you to open an account in a particular bank, the first question is , "In which bank do you have your account?" Or if it is a credit card, "Which credit card do you use?" And there is no end to these phone calls. They are invading the privacy of your home, they are disturbing you at work . Since the government has done nothing to put a stop to this and protect consumers, we, the consumers, need to campaign for a law that checks telemarketers from violating our right to privacy. In the United States, for example, the "No Call" law prohibits companies from calling those whose telephone numbers are on the "Do not call " list. Those who violate the law and call these numbers end up paying huge financial penalties. Besides the state governments which have passed the "No Call" law, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is the consumer protection agency there, has also created a "National Do Not Call Registry". The FTC says that the decision to create the registry followed a comprehensive three-year review of the telemarketing sales rules. The USA law does not completely eliminate telemarketing, but it does considerably reduce the irritant. Consumers who do not wish to receive telemarketing calls can register their telephone numbers-both landlines and cell phones – with the National Registry as well as the state registry. The registry only accepts personal phone numbers. Business to business numbers are outside the registry. Companies have to buy once in a quarter, the list of these telephone numbers and they are forbidden from calling these numbers to sell goods or services. While some of the state laws, like the one in Pennsylvania stipulate that the prohibition against calling those numbers come into effect within thirty days of obtaining the list from the ‘Do not Call’ registry., the FTC gives the telemarketers three months. . The law however does not prevent calls from or on behalf of political organisations, charities and from companies with whom you have an existing business relationship. Those doing telephone surveys are also permitted to call these numbers. However if a telemarketer uses a telephone survey as an excuse to push a product or a service, then he is violating the law. If a telemarketer calls a number which is in the "No Call" registry, he can be hauled up for violation. The consumer in such cases can complain to the Federal Trade Commission or the Federal Communications Commission or the state law enforcement officials. Violation of the law carries a civil penalty. In Pennsylvania, for example, the penalty can go up to 1000 dollars and if the person contacted is 60 years of age or more, 3000 dollars. In fact in what is said to be the first lawsuit filed under the "Do Not Call" law, the Office of the Attorney General , California, obtained an order in June this year against a company called American Home Craft. The company and its director was asked to pay 100,000 dollars : 45,000 dollars in civil penalties, 30,000 dollars towards costs of investigating and prosecuting the case and 25,000 dollars to the California residents who lodged the complaint about receiving telephone calls in violation of the Do Not Call Law. So start discussing the need for such a law with your Members of Parliament. You could also write to the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs as well as the Communication Ministry, demanding a law to protect you from telemarketers. |
