At least 21 have laws prohibiting certain telemarketers from soliciting people who put their names on official lists, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Florida, in 1988, became the first state with a no-call measure, primarily intended to protect senior citizens. More than 300,000 New Yorkers have signed onto a no-call registry kept by that state's consumer protection agency since last October. In May, Indiana enacted a measure staunchly supported by Attorney General Steve Carter, who made the issue a key part of his campaign last year. Federal law requires a company to honor an individual request that a person not be called again, but it doesn't stop countless other telemarketers from initially calling that person.
State laws offer broader protections.
Carter said Indiana's law is among the strongest in the nation because it includes only a handful of exceptions. Charities, newspapers, insurance agents and real estate agents can all call private homes, provided they use local employees rather than professional telemarketing firms. Other telemarketers will be barred from calling listed consumers beginning Jan. 1. The Direct Marketing Association says state measures such as Indiana's are largely redundant because of the federal telemarketing law. There are more than 3.5 million names on the list, said Jerry Cerasale, the DMA's senior vice president for governmental affairs.