Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, announced last week that he hopes to extend Wisconsin’s Do Not Call list to include cell phones. The number of cell-phone users in the state has risen greatly in the last five years, and he said it is time to address the issue of telemarketing on cell phones.
“We have 1.5 landlines [per household] on the list now and if we figure that there are two or three cell phones for every landline we could be looking at another 4 or 5 million phone lines,” said Janet Jenkins, administrator for the Department of Trade and Consumer Protection.
The Do Not Call list was implemented in 2002 as a solution to the growing number of complaints against telemarketers. The list does not extend any costs to citizens and requires only the phone number of the person.
While some feel telemarketing on cell phones is not yet a major problem, the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection said they have received complaints from consumers.
“People with cell phones have told us they want to be on the ‘no-call’ list,” Glen Loyd, spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture, said. “We do get complaints from consumers who say they have been telemarketed on their cell phones.”
It is possible some cell phones may already be on the list because the state does not have a way to check whether consumers have registered their home phones or cell phones as their main phone number.
Erpenbach also proposed that the fines be raised for telemarketing companies who violate Do Not Call regulations. He said he wants the fines to go from $100 to $500 for individuals and from $1,000 to $10,000 for companies.
The Department of Trade and Consumer Protection contends an increase in fines would be a very important change.
“For some of these giant companies a $100 fine for each violation isn’t very significant so some of them may decide they are going to make more money violating the law than if they got caught,” Jenkins said.
According to Gov. Jim Doyle’s office, these higher fines were at one time approved but then vetoed by former Republican Gov. Scott McCallum.
Doyle fully supports Erpenbach’s legislative proposals.
“He would love to sign the legislation,” Melanie Fonder, spokesperson for Doyle, said. “Telemarketing is the number one consumer complaint in Wisconsin for the second year running and having a strong no-call list is the one way to address it directly.”
Most recently, concern from businesses in Wisconsin about inconsistencies between state and federal Do Not Call list standards prompted the Federal Communications Commission to consider overriding Wisconsin’s legislation.
Businesses hope to have the federal standard of 18 months to continue calling after a consumer-company relationship ends. The Wisconsin Do Not Call List only allows them to call one final time to try to renew the relationship.
“The complaint from banks would weaken the law if the FCC sided with the banks,” Fonder said. “The governor is asking consumers to file complaints as soon as possible.”
The FCC has yet to yield any final rulings.
