Washington: There might be some relief for Indian business process outsourcing (BPO) companies as a federal court in Oklahoma, US, ruled that the Federal Trade Commission's "Do Not Call Registry" is invalid.

The court's decision on September 24 overturned FTC rules that bar telemarketers from calling any consumer, who enrolled in the registry, saying the FTC acted without authorisation from Congress.

The National Do Not Call Registry (of the US) is aimed at putting consumers in charge of the telemarketing calls they get at home. The Federal government created the national registry to make it easier and more efficient for consumers to stop getting telemarketing sales calls they don't want. Elimination of telemarketing fraud and prohibition against deceptive and abusive acts or practices are major public concerns in the US.

But an agency's power to regulate must always be grounded in a valid grant of authority of Congress and in the absence of such a grant of authority, the court finds the do-not-call provision invalid, US District Judge Lee R West said in his ruling.

FTC adopted its Do Not Call rules in December 2002 and the new registry proved popular with over 50 million consumers signing up for the list that was to be effective from October 1.

However, the lawmakers said they will take appropriate action necessary to ensure consumers could stop intrusive calls from unwanted telemarkteers, sources added.

Indian BPO companies who were already reeling under US pressure on outsourcing, were anticipating the worst on the Do Not Call list and the judgement came as a huge relief.

PTI