US MR Associations Support 'Do-Not-Call'

Three American research associations have gone on the record supporting the FTC's National Do-Not-Call Registry, which allows US citizens to opt out from telemarketing calls. The heavily subscribed list has been ruled unconstitutional by the Denver federal court, with further hearings scheduled for November 10th.

The three survey research industry associations - AAPOR (American Association for Public Opinion Research), CASRO (Council of American Survey Research Organizations), and CMOR (Council for Marketing and Opinion Research) - jointly filed an industry amici (friend of the court) brief in opposition to the ruling last week.

The associations represent about 2,000 US research companies and individual research professionals in all segments of the industry. The amici backs the FTC's right to prohibit telemarketers from calling over 50m households who have signed up, as it aims to protect the public from fraudulent and misleading telemarketing calls, and allow them to reject sales calls if they wish.

Currently, telemarketers are required to call at specific times, to establish DNC lists, and not to mislead those called, for example by claiming to be running a survey ('selling under the guise' or sugging, in MR industry parlance). The National DNC Registry obviously has wider implications and telemarketers have been quick to make legal challenges.

'The Denver Court seems to be saying that the FTC is unfairly discriminating against telemarketers, when, in fact, the public complaints that prompted federal legislation in the first place relate directly to telemarketers', said Paul Talmey, CASRO Board Chairman.

The FTC gives an implicit exemption for survey research and explicit exemption for non-profit institutions, on the grounds that they are not 'burdensome', have social utility, and are sufficiently self-regulated. AAPOR President Betsy Martin points out that 'Our industry has a strong history of self-regulation, which includes mandatory codes of professional and ethical standards in both AAPOR and CASRO'. Diane Bowers, President of CASRO, adds that 'We recognize that some people may choose not to participate in telephone research, but we want to make sure when they say 'No' to being interviewed, it's not because they are suspicious and think we're really telemarketers'.

Federal court hearings on this issue are scheduled for November 10th and CASRO Chair-Elect Simon Chadwick believes the Court should not ignore this 'monumental expression of public opinion... After all, nearly 50% of the public has said they want the ability to stop sales calls and the survey research industry agrees with this opinion'.

Web sites for the organisations involved are at www.aapor.org , www.casro.org and www.cmor.org . A full list of international MR Associations can be found on MrWeb at www.mrweb.com/mrassocs.htm

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.