30 May
2007

















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     eroding the Do Not Call regime

ACMA, the Australian national telecommunications regulator, has moved to erode the new Do Not Call regime a day before the scheme comes into effect.

The Australian scheme, like counterparts in the US and elsewhere, centres on a national register and a code of practice for telemarketers, market researchers and others who make unsolicited calls to home phone numbers. The scheme has a statutory basis and features fines for egregious abuses.

It reflects criticism by consumers of calls from local and overseas 'tele-pests', typically scheduled to catch the consumer at home during meal times, the early evening or weekends.

The scheme allows consumers to provide their residential number to a national registry (operated on a commercial basis by a government contractor). Australian telemarketers and market researchers are required to 'wash' their database of numbers with information from the registry, excluding numbers that appear in the registry.

The US registry quickly gained numbers from some 60 million households. In Australia over 220,000 households signed up during the initial weeks of May 2007 and participation can be expected to grow, probably to around 70% of all households.

The Australian Do Not Call legislation requires callers to comply with a formal code of practice, underpinned by penalties for breaches. The code covers calls by or on behalf of Australian businesses; it does not purport to cover calls made from overseas on behalf of overseas entities. Alas, that means people will still be bothered by dubious offers from call centres and other teleslave hot spots.

The legislation features substantial exemptions. It does not, for example restrict calls by charities or political organisations. If you signed up to the scheme expecting freedom from pleas for donations or suggestions that you vote for a particular candidate or shun another political party you will be disappointed.

The code allows calls during particular times. Making a mockery of multiculturalism it initially put Sunday out of bounds, apparently on the basis that the Christian day of rest was sacred but people of other faiths could be legitimately bothered on Saturday.

ACMA has now announced that it

has varied the Telecommunications (Do Not Call Register) (Telemarketing and Research Calls) Industry Standard 2007 to allow research calls to be made on Sundays.

ACMA has decided to vary the industry standard because the Authority reached the conclusion that prohibiting research calls on a Sunday could potentially reduce the benefits to the community from well-structured research

In asking why ACMA has encountered a last minute revelation, causing it to disregard information gained through its public consultation process and overturn the published code, it is difficult not to suspect political pressure (a federal election approaches) and lobbying by the market research industry.

ACMA indicates that its

view is based on strong evidence provided to ACMA that the prohibition could undermine the value of longitudinal data sets where data had previously been collected on Sundays, as well as increase the potential for bias because samples were not representative.

Before varying the standard, ACMA called for views on the issue of research calls on a Sunday through the release of a discussion paper on 20 April 2007. The submissions received provided extensive new quantitative and qualitative information which emphasised the importance of Sunday calling to quality research.

ACMA understands that the community generally considers unsolicited telephone calls to be inconvenient and intrusive ... However, the community also appreciates the importance of quality research in delivering social and economic benefits.

After considering the views put to us, we have concluded that calls should be allowed on Sundays but with tighter calling hours than those that exist under current self-regulatory arrangements. This will allow valuable research to continue.

One cannot, it seems, have too much valuable research and lobbyists should always be given an extra chance to supply "extensive new quantitative and qualitative information" at 5 minutes to midnight.

The response from one consumer advocate was that people bothered with unwanted calls at the weekend should politely subvert the market research process by providing the caller with "new quantitative and qualitative information" about their cat's share portfolio, their intention to vote for the Wiccan Party and sharing a house with a 90 year old AfroAmerican billionaire who indulges in taxidermy and powerboat racing in her spare time.

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