Don't reach out and touch us any more: Expanding telephone consumer protection

Abstract

In December, I99 1, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 199 1 became law. This bill regulates telemarketing activity and is intended to protect the home privacy interests of American telephone customers. The federal law is substantially similar t o legislation recently enacted by numerous states. This article explains the main provisions of the n e w federal law, as well as the various state regulations. Then, the piece compares and contrasts the federal and state approaches t o see if any State laws are preempted by the controlling federal bill. Finally, the article examines the free speech rights of telephone solicitors to determine if any of these n e w laws violate first amendment freedoms. A n appendix provides a quick reference to the main provisions of the state laws.