AT&T’s telemarketing policies and practices show the Department of Justice...

for illegal calls on their behalf. The carrier has arranged to receive do-not-call (DNC) requests to contractors in a timely way, “which is essential to ensure that AT&T’s internal DNC lists are up-to-date,” Davida Grant, a lawyer for the company, told the commission in a filing posted Thursday about the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). “AT&T also scrubs all telemarketing lists against the national and AT&T-specific DNC lists before providing the lists to third parties for telemarketing to prevent illegal telemarketing calls. Further, AT&T has contractual measures in place that obligate third parties telemarketing on their behalf to (1) provide AT&T with DNC requests they receive on a daily basis, (2) automatically block future calls to any number for which the third party has received a DNC request, (3) comply with all TCPA requirements, including call abandonment and Caller ID requirements, and (4) perform periodic compliance review and performance monitoring. Thus, contrary to DOJ and FTC claims, sellers cannot and do not hand off compliance obligations to third parties to avoid liability. Rather, sellers work with third parties that market on their behalf to avoid illegal telemarketing calls initiated by them or the third party.” The filing came in a proceeding to fulfill a request by a federal appeals court for an interpretation of the act. Section 227(c) gives a company a defense to liability if it has used “due care” to set up “reasonable practices and procedures to effectively prevent telephone solicitations” that violate this rule, AT&T noted. This standard contradicts factors proposed by the FTC for holding principals responsible for outside telemarketers, the carrier said.