The Federal Trade Commission is now enforcing the Do Not Call Registry. Early enforcement of the law was thrown into disarray when a judge questioned if the government had the authority enforce the list and shut down the Registry. This issue was resolved by Congress which, in one day, passed a law giving authority to the FTC to administer the law.
Consumers register for free, just like they did with the Direct Marketing Association’s Telephone Preference Service. However, now the cost for telemarketers to suppress the people who do not want to be called costs thousands of dollars more than the DMA’s TPS and so do the penalties if telemarketers violate the law.
The information provided below has been our experience of working with the law and is not intended to replace your advice of counsel.
All companies that make outgoing calls to prospects (yes there are exceptions) should register and obtain a subscription or SAN number. Personally, we believe that even exempt companies; non-profits, survey companies etc, should voluntarily suppress consumers who don’t want phone calls. To register or find out more about this click on https://telemarketing.donotcall.gov/
The exempt companies are non-profit fund-raisers, political parties and survey companies. Also, you may contact a consumer with whom you have an existing business relationship for18 months since their last transaction. Companies may contact a person who has responded to a direct mail piece or filled out an application for a period of three months.
In addition to “scrubbing” or cleaning a prospect list against the Registry by a merge and purge, telemarketing firms are required to scrub a prospect file against their own in-house list of people who have requested that you not call them. Failure to do so is a violation and may result in an $11,000 fine, per number called.
We will need your registration or SAN number to process your lead order. While all the preferred partners we work with subscribe to the Registry and suppress all the numbers on that list against your order, this is done as a value added service. The end user is responsible for scrubbing the list against the Registry and their in-house Do Not Call list.
Because the Registry updates daily, and some list providers update bi weekly or at least monthly, it is possible to find some records that are recent additions that do not pass your scrubbing.Thus, while all of our providers will suppress against the Registry, it is ultimately the responsibility of the end user to do this. This is not our policy but how the law is written.
For more information, including frequently asked questions, click on https://telemarketing.donotcall.gov/