business services. 

24

  Unlike the Telemarketing Act, the TCPA expressly authorized the adoption 

of a  single national database to compile a list of telephone numbers of residential subscribers  

who wished to suppress the receipt of unsolicited telemarketing solicitations.

25

  A nationwide do 

not call registry was only one of several mechanisms Congress directed the FCC to consider as a 

means of enabling residential telephone subscribers to prevent objectionable telemarketing 

solicitations.

26

  Notwithstanding this authorization, Congress expressly prohibited the FCC from 

adopting a national do not call database that would prevent telemarketing calls to any person 

with whom the caller has formed an  established business relationship. 

27

  The House Committee 

explained this decision as follows: 

The [TCPA] reflects a balance the Committee reached between 

barring all calls to those subscribers who objected to unsolicited 

calls and a desire to not unduly interfere with ongoing business 

relationships.  To provide as much protection as possible to the 

former interest while respecting the latter, the Committee adopted 

an exception to the general rule   that objecting subscribers should 

not be called   which enables businesses to continue established 

business relationships with customers . . .The Committee found 

that subscribers' objections to telemarketing initiatives were 

twofold.  The first element pertains to the volume of unwanted 

calls.  The second involves the unwanted nature of the calls.  That 

is, the absence of any current or prior dealings with the caller was 

the source of many objections.

28

The House Committee found that consumers who have previously expressed interest in products 

or services offered by a telemarketer generally are less likely to be surprised by calls from such 

sellers or consider them intrusive.  The Committee also explained that the exemption Congress 

24

TCPA Report and Order

, 7 F.C.C.R. 8752, 8754 (1992). 

25

 47 U.S.C.   227(c)(3). 

26

Id.

 at   227(c)(1). 

27

Id. 

at   227(a)(3). 

28

House Report on the TCPA

, H.R. Rep. No. 102 317, at 13 (1991). 

14