Do-Not-Call Registry hampers research - Legislation; market research - Brief Article

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Dec, 2003

The National Do-Not-Call Registry, designed to prevent unwanted solicitation calls to consumers, could harm legitimate data collection and put a damper on the economy, fears John G. Lynch Jr., marketing professor at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, Durham, N.C. The legislation allows calls to the home from market research firms that are not selling a product, but this fact has not been publicized widely, and some firms are finding that consumers who enrolled are irate about getting legitimate fact-finding inquiries.

"This is causing unintended harm to market research and other forms of polling that rely on random sampling techniques to be able to project their findings to some universe of interest. This law may serve to reduce competition by making it harder for firms to contact people with whom they do not have an existing business relationship."