Telemarketer: Hi, would you be interested in switching over to TMI long-distance service?
Jerry: Oh, gee, I can't talk right now. Why don't you give me your home number, and I'll call you later?
Telemarketer: Uh, well I'm sorry, we're not allowed to do that.
Jerry: Oh, I guess you don't want people calling you at home.
Telemarketer: No.
Jerry: Well, now you know how I feel. [Jerry hangs up phone]
It was a 15-second interaction Jerry had during a season 4 episode of "Seinfeld" that inspired a New Jersey proposal to limit telemarketers. And now the so-called "Seinfeld Bill" has become law.
Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, signed the legislation Monday. It requires telemarketers to, within 30 seconds of the call, identify themselves by name and provide the name and number of the person on whose behalf it is being made. They also have to declare the purpose of that call within that initial half-minute.
It also mandates that telemarketers display their mailing address on any website they own and operate, as well as the address of any business they represent on calls.
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And for those frustrated by the timing of said calls, there's good news. Unsolicited telemarketing calls are banned between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m., local time, at the customer's location, under the bill.
Murphy said he was proud to sign it into law, saying it provides much-needed transparency.
"The famous 'Seinfeld' scene where Jerry is irritated that telemarketers can call at any time, under any pretense, and without any kind of guidelines or consequences, makes light of a situation many New Jerseyans face every day, sometimes multiple times a day," Murphy said in a statement.
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Primary sponsors included state Sens. Jon Bramnick and Nellie Pou and Assemblymembers Paul Moriarty, Daniel Benson and Clinton Calabrese.
"When you answer a telemarketer’s call, you should know right up front who they are and who they work for," Bramnick, a Republican, said in a statement. "If they’re on the up and up, telemarketing firms should have no issue with this bill."
The prohibition on unsolicited sales calls and the requirement to disclose certain telemarketer information do not apply to telemarketing sales calls when a customer contacts the telemarketer via phone call or website and affirmatively requests a follow-up telemarketing sales call or other contact, New Jersey officials say.
