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For Release: March 23, 2004
FTC Amends Telemarketing Sales Rule Regarding Access to National Do Not Call Registry
Revised Final Rule Requires Telemarketers
to "Scrub" Their Call Lists Every 31 Days;
Registered Phone Numbers Top 58 Million; Compliance Remains High
As
required by the Consolidated Appropriations
Act of 2004, the Federal Trade Commission in February announced a proposal to
amend the "Do Not Call" provisions of the Telemarketing Sales
Rule (TSR) to require that telemarketers subject to the Rule access the National
Do Not Call Registry and purge numbers on the Registry from their call lists
every month, instead of every quarter as the Rule
originally required. The Commission today announced
that the final amended Rule provisions will become effective on January 1, 2005,
with telemarketers required to "scrub" their lists against the
Registry at least every 31 days.
In its February notice
of proposed rulemaking, the FTC requested comments on the proposed amendment's
use of the phrase "thirty (30) days" rather than "once a month," the phrase used in the
statute. In the notice, the Commission suggested the "thirty (30) days" language
as a way to make the requirement clearer, and to achieve Congress' intent more
effectively, which was to shorten from
quarterly to monthly the interval for telemarketers and sellers to purge registered
telephone numbers from their calling lists - in effect reducing the time consumers
have to wait, after registering, for
unwanted telemarketing calls to stop.
The FTC received 186
comments in response to the notice of proposed rulemaking from consumers,
consumer groups, businesses, and trade associations. The Commission considered
these
comments in determining what the final rule would be. The Commission chose the
interval "thirty-one
(31)," as opposed to "thirty (30) days," to provide sellers and telemarketers
the maximum time allowable under the Appropriations Act to simplify the process
of scrubbing lists on a monthly basis.
The Commission set the effective date of the Rule as January 1, 2005, to enable
the Commission to
modify the Registry system to account for increased download traffic and logic changes, and enable
businesses, to the extent necessary, to implement new systems and procedures to accommodate the
more frequent scrubbing interval. All of the public comments are available for review on the FTC's
Web site.
To date, consumers have registered 58.4 million phone numbers on the Do Not Call Registry,
and according to the FTC, most telemarketers have been diligent in their efforts to scrub their lists and
to meet the Registry's requirements. A recent Harris® Poll showed high levels of compliance, with a
large percentage of telemarketers who are required to download the list and delete newly included
numbers doing so on a timely basis.
The Commission vote to approve publication of the Federal Register notice announcing the final
rule was 5-0.
Copies of the notice of the final amended Telemarketing Rule and accompanying
statement of basis and
purpose are available from the FTC's Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and also
from the FTC's Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue,
N.W., Washington, DC 20580.
The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business
practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot,
stop and avoid them. To file a
complaint, or to get free information on any of 150 consumer topics, call toll-free,
1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357), or use the complaint form at http://www.ftc.gov.
The FTC enters Internet,
telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer
Sentinel, a secure, online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal
law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Mitchell J. Katz
Office of Public Affairs
202-326-2161
STAFF CONTACT:
Catherine Harrington-McBride
Bureau of Consumer Protection
202-326-2452
(FTC File No. R411001)
(http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/03/tsrdncscrub.htm)
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Related Documents:
16 CFR Part 310
Telemarketing Sales Rule
Final Amended Rule Section 310.4(b)(3)(iv) and Statement of
Basis and Purpose
- Text
of the Federal Register Notice [PDF 63KB]
Consumer Information:
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