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About the FTC Do Not Call Registry
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.
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