Rep's Corner

It’s a scene that many Ohioans are familiar with. After spending a long day at work, negotiating rush hour traffic, picking up the mail and fixing the evening meal, we are all ready to sit down and talk with our family or just eat our dinner in peace. And then the phone rings.

I’ve got nothing against vinyl siding, carpet cleaning, or the many other valuable products and services that telemarketers are eager to sell me. It’s just that if I really wanted these things, I would be the one making the phone call, not them.

If you’re like me and countless other Americans, you could do without the hassle. The good news is that the federal government has taken the first step in answering your call for no calls by creating the Federal “Do-Not-Call” registry.

Administered by the Federal Trace Commission, the registry was created in response to a review of the Telemarketing Sales Rule and the Commission’s enforcement of the rule over the past seven years. Feedback from interested parties and consumers also showed support for the do-not-call list. At the end of June, the FTC launch the website www.donotcall.gov to begin collecting numbers from consumers who want to rid themselves of the hassle and interruption of pesky telemarketing calls. As of July 4, 2003, approximately 728,000 Ohioans had signed up for the online registry in addition to millions of other Americans.

The list, which will become effective October 1, 2003, does allow nonprofit organizations, political groups, surveyors and businesses that have conducted transactions with the intended audience to contact citizens via telephone. Consumers who register after October 1, 2003, will have to wait 90 days before the registry has an effect on their telemarketing calls.

Ohio is close on the heels of the federal law. Introduced by State Senator Robert Spada (R – Parma Heights), Senate Bill 28 proposes to create a state do-not-call list administered by the Ohio Attorney General. This list will remain separate from the federal registry and will give Ohioans more local control when pursuing violators. The bill has been passed by the Ohio Senate and is pending in the House Civil & Commercial Law Committee.

The national do-not-call registry can be reached by telephone and on the Internet; online registry requires a valid e-mail address for confirmation purposes. Call 1-888-382-1222 or visit www.donotcall.gov to add your number to the growing list of citizens who want to protect their privacy and eat dinner in peace.

As always, if you would like to contact me about this or any other issue, you can call my office at (614) 466-1731 or you can write to me at 77 S. High St., 13th Floor, Columbus, OH 43215.

Back to Rep's Corner

© Copyright 2008 State Representative Lynn Olman. All rights reserved.