Content area
Abstract
The provisions of the Telemarketing Sales Rule, which the Federal Trade Commission promulgated in 1995 pursuant to the 1994 Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act, are analyzed. A framework is proposed through which the Rule may be understood as embodying a regulatory strategy of controlling abusive telemarketing by enhancing the effectiveness of market forces. In particular, the Rule works by improving the quantity and quality of information flowing to consumers, preventing the occurrence of transactions that the consumer does not truly intend, preventing telemarketers from evading the effects of market forces governing availability of payment mechanisms, and enhancing the effectiveness of the contract regime. The same framework is applied to the 1997 Distance Selling Directive of the European Union, yielding several recommendations that EU member countries may find useful when transposing the Directive into national law.