Andrew
August 28th, 2009, 04:21 PM
Starting Tuesday, many "robocalls" from telemarketers will be illegal. A new ban on automated telemarketing calls goes into effect Tuesday. Businesses that try to push products on consumers with automated and unsolicited calls will face fines of up to $16,000 per call, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
"American consumers have made it crystal clear that few things annoy them more than the billions of commercial telemarketing robocalls they receive every year," FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a news release.
Calls from politicians, public service announcements and "informational" calls will be exempt from the new rule. A call alerting a traveler that his or her flight has been delayed would still be allowed, for example. Banks, telephone carriers and most charitable organizations are also excluded from the ban, the FTC says.
Okay so we hate these calls, and so they are going to ban them but....oh politicians can still do it. BULL!
If companies can't do it, politicians shouldn't be able to either.
The info ones mentioned are fine, as are reverse 911 type stuff obviously.
How blatantly hypocritical can we get?
"American consumers have made it crystal clear that few things annoy them more than the billions of commercial telemarketing robocalls they receive every year," FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a news release.
Calls from politicians, public service announcements and "informational" calls will be exempt from the new rule. A call alerting a traveler that his or her flight has been delayed would still be allowed, for example. Banks, telephone carriers and most charitable organizations are also excluded from the ban, the FTC says.
Okay so we hate these calls, and so they are going to ban them but....oh politicians can still do it. BULL!
If companies can't do it, politicians shouldn't be able to either.
The info ones mentioned are fine, as are reverse 911 type stuff obviously.
How blatantly hypocritical can we get?