FTC Bans Marketing Robocalls Except For Politicians, Their Friends
The Federal Trade Commission, that good old shoplifting whore, has finally decided to make automated marketing robocalls illegal starting next week. After September 1, violators may get fines of up to $US16,000 per call, except for the usual suspects.
Who these may be, you ask? Who? Yes, you guessed it: politicians asking for money would still be able to do it. And their friends the banks too. And charities and churches. And, let’s not forget, those providing with the whole infrastructure to keep bugging you with stupid automated marketing calls: the lovely telephone companies.
What makes the whole thing ironic are FTC’s Chairman Jon Leibowitz words after the ban was approved:
Starting September 1, this bombardment of prerecorded pitches, senseless solicitations, and malicious marketing will be illegal. If consumers think they’re being harassed by robocallers, they need to let us know, and we will go after them.
So, Mr. Leibowitz, could you please explain to us why politicians, banks, charities and telephone companies making “prerecorded pitches, senseless solicitations, and malicious marketing” won’t be as illegal as the rest of the annoying morons calling with the same “prerecorded pitches, senseless solicitations, and malicious marketing” messages? Please leave your answer in the comments. [Ars Technica]
Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
@souhaite: Makes sense. Wish it would be consistent across the board, but this is a start at least and the reason why the others aren't covered seems straight forward enough.
bustedchain
@DustyButtâ„¢: No legislation here - it's the FTC regulating all that they're allowed to under their mandate. They CAN'T regulate banks, so they DON'T, or they run the risk of their regulations being invalidated by the courts.
souhaite
No conspiracy theories necessary here. The FTC doesn't have the jurisdiction to regulate banks, phone companies, churches, politicians or charities. They are only authorized by Congress to regulate commercial entities that are not otherwise regulated by another federal agency, like the SEC (i.e., financial institutions) or the FCC (i.e., telecommunications companies).
souhaite
How to lose my vote or guarantee that I do not donate to your charity:
Robocall (or any unsolicited phone call).
@DJ Bushido: Interest rates would be out of control..
Slapping cardholders with 30% apr for sneezing and charging the equiv of 2000% interest for an overdraft somehow isn't "out of control?"
Ryan Douthit
I'm betting those ass-wipe carpet cleaners will still be calling us after this goes into place.
@DustyButtâ„¢: I work in debt collection, the necessary evil in the credit and lending-based economy we live in. I can say that without robocalling, our industry would be not nearly as productive as it is. And whether you like it or not, without a strong debt collection industry, interest rates would be out of control and getting so much as a $10,000 car loan would be next to impossible.
So maybe they call it "banks," but really, it's the asset recovery divisions of those "banks" (and 3rd party agencies like mine) that are allowed to use it... If you didn't hear, those big evil banks could really use some of those debts paid back that they borrowed us, it's KIND OF ruining our economy right now...
@TheGuinnessTooth: no. only Asimov's 3 laws... which i think we make robots break anyways.
@buttnugget:
I'm Dutch living in Germany. I never had a robocall in my life.
Yeah... The US, what a great place to live in...
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAA
@albucian:
And then google can robocall us...
@DangerousLiberal: It really doesnt apply in this situation, in any way.
archercc
@Kuciwalker: Does the first amendment apply to robots?
@Dr. Evil Genius: Hey, if they wont submit to random back rubs then they dont deserve my respect!
archercc
@VideoVampire:
Computers generate pulses all the time.
What does it matter? They won't actually fine anyone. There's already a rule like this on the books for cell phones - they aren't allowed to use computer dialers to cold-call a cell phone to sell something.
Guess what, I got called twice by a company "free magazines!" I asked how they got my number. "You musta gone somewhere on the internet." So I complained to the FCC. Their response - not illegal, because they didn't actually say they were selling anything.
Dreamwriter
I hate when recordings call me, especially when they are in another language (I'm looking at you Spanish). If they dont have the time or decency to have something with a PULSE call me, then I dont have the time or decency to listen.
VideoVampire
I don't know about Mr. Leibowitz, but I have a REALLY EASY ANSWER for your question, Mr. Diaz: THE FIRST AMENDMENT.
OK, we can all go home now.
Kuciwalker
I love how politicians have some how become Kings and Lords again!!! They can pass laws that make sure they're exempt from. They fly around in planes paid for by the public, etc.
I'd love to blame democrats/republicans, but in all honesty, I hate you all.
RichasB
@tok3ninja: I am the only one that DOESN'T get these weird calls?!
@archercc: ...and that would be "Jehovah's Witnesses".
Show some respect.
I think everybody is missing the real issue with this legislation... what are all those unemployed robots going to do? They'll become frustrated and join extremist robot groups plotting our undoing!
Babaganoosh
@Scott Jackson:
For me, it is window installers and carpet cleaning.
Dacker
@W10002: What makes you think it will stop? It was already illegal for them to solicit you via your cellphone. And who is going after these bozos? Where is the funding coming from to track down and prosecute them? Is this adding to our taxes, or is the money being funneled from another source?
This is bullshit legislation that is only touted in order to lill the American people into thinking that the government is working for us. Meanwhile they are scrambling to cover their own asses as they duke it out over healthcare and budget crises.
I think a hack needs to be invented to reverse this trend and robocalls the companies back. Think Ping of Death for company phone systems. Ahhhh sweet revenge.
ralfhutter
is it possible this is specifically targeting that car warrenty thing? Besides them it doesn't stop anybody from robocalling...
aja175
@DustyButtâ„¢:
I bet it's so they can still send reminder calls when people's payments are late.
aja175
@ColonelGentleman: OOOh the car warranty ass-wipes! I was angry enough that they got my cell, then my husbands.. But they called me at work and I wanted to kill someone.
@winshape: "I'm saying that when the president does it, it's not illegal!"
I always get the big ship horn, followed by the let's have some fun in the sun calls. Once a week at work. I guess they are marketing a vacation on a cruise ship, but I hang up as soon as I hear that horn now.
BWThorp
@Geisrud: Yes, that and, once I've given you money, I will do so when I am able. Calling me to even more will only get you off my donation list.
@tok3ninja: I've done pretty well with the do not call list. I'm sick of the charities that keep calling.
A note to all charities, if I wanted to give you money, I would have already.
Politicians = ruling class/royalty. They make the rules for everyone else to follow, while allowing themselves to be exempt.
They are no longer civil servants, they are our masters - regardless of which party is in power. Term limits ftw.
winshape
I get about 10 robo calls a day, 8 of them go like this... "ummm... we talked before, and I'm looking at your account here... and... oh my god... holy fuck... we owe you like gazillion dollars... please press 1 to talk to someone immediately so we can give you your money back". I don't know who makes these calls.. but those are the most annoying and I hope they don't fall under the "bank" category.
deenster
@MrBangBam: Government and Church are some of the biggest, richest corporations around. Not paying taxes has its benefit.
Underpants Gnome
Great...except the whole do not call list hasn't stopped those f@#%ing car warranty guys before, so why do they think this will? Plus, they spoof their numbers (also illegal) so its tough to pin fines on violators.
ColonelGentleman
As long as I stop getting calls from satellite TV resellers and extended car warranty companies then this will take care of 99% of the robo calls that I get.
Scott Jackson
@Kaiser-Machead: Clearly you don't live in a battleground state. I get more shit left on my doorstep (despite the "no soliciting" sign...), more slanderous commercials, and, yes, more political smear campaign robocalls than I can shake a stick at.
IMO, this is just paper tiger pandering. I've easily gotten 100x more political robocalls than any other robocalls.
buttnugget
So now they're going to do something when I report a call? I haven't seen any evidence of that yet.
jdale
@MrBangBam: American Politics 101: Never outwardly speak out/legislate against "God", "Guns", and "The Children". Those three things trump corporations because 90% of politicians base their campaign on them.
DustyButtâ„¢
@Kaiser-Machead: You're too late anyway. I adopted that highway last week. It shall be known as the Road To Nowhere Much Better as soon as I can scrape up the rest of the fee.
NurseDave
@Kaiser-Machead: However, you can expect a call from the Nigerian Prince International Kittens and Highways Bank soliciting a sweet investment scheme.
DustyButtâ„¢
Ah, good. Well that takes care of those annoying.....ummm.....
.......No, there's someone this affects, I'm sure of it....
What?!
I can understand why politicians should be allowed to call. So the lesser known contestants can have a chance to get funds together and all... I'm cool with that.
I can understand why charities and churches (who most times provide charitable services) are allowed to call... I'm OK with that even.
I can even see why telephone companies can call too. I'm not thrilled over this, but hey, they pretty much own the phone lines. Ownership has it's privileges.
BUT WHY IN THE FUCK DO BANKS GET TO CALL TOO??? What could possibly be the reasoning behind allowing banks to robocall, besides the fact that your palm just got greased!?
It sticks out like a sore thumb to me. It's so OBVIOUS that they just paid their way into the legislation. How can they deliver something like this and not expect to look.... urrrrghhhh! It just blows my mind.
Maybe I'm missing something... Am I wrong in feeling this way?
DustyButtâ„¢
@ViewtifulJason: I dont understand your logic. If it was about money, corporations and businesses would have the most power, not churches, charities and campaigning politicians.
When we all have a google voice account they all have it deep...
albucian
@tok3ninja: I used to do that with Jehova's Witnesses but they stopped coming by. :( Seriously, Ive seen them in my neighbourhood too.
archercc
In all seriousness, politician endorsement calls are relatively rare, as are church/police charities, and whoever their affiliates are probably would never call that often either. So long as I don't get Nigerian Prince asking for money for his International Kittens and Highway Adoption Fund, it's A-OK.
Kaiser-Machead
@DangerousLiberal: It's good to know robots can still exercise their rights.
jetRink
But at least this ruling will kill off 95% of all robot-calls I get. 95 car warranty calls vs. 5 political calls.
Because they pay them the big bucks. Everyone is corruptible.
ViewtifulJason
Suck it telerobot monkeys!
TheCrudMan
@Kaiser-Machead: I do that all the time with anyone on the phone.
I rather liked when Mayor Bloomberg's campaign used live callers to endorse him. It was fun to try and chitchat with the caller. If you lacked shame, you could always bring the cordless phone to the bathroom to finish the conversation. Robocallers are boring.
Kaiser-Machead
Well, as to politicians, I refer you to the misty days of high school, and civics class, and this thing called "The First Amendment." We don't have to like it. But that's the reason.
DangerousLiberal
They have been banned in Washington State for many years now. It’s about time the rest of the country caught up with the disgruntled citizens of Washington.
Software_Goddess
Illegal or not it's not going to stop them. We all know how successful the Do Not Call list is.