Do Not Call Blocked by Okla. Fed Court

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) does not have the authority to enact its wildly popular national Do Not Call list, the Oklahoma City U.S. District Court ruled yesterday, according to Reuters.

The list was due to take effect Oct. 1 and more than 50 million phone numbers have been registered for the service, which would make the numbers off limits to most commercial solicitors.

The court said that while the FTC does have the authority to regulate abusive or fraudulent telemarketing activities, it was up to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to enact this more broad-ranging type of regulation.

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) and a number of telemarketing companies were the plaintiffs in the suit against the FTC.