For Release:
July 29, 2003
Telemarketing Sales
Rule Amended to Establish Fees for Industry Access to National
Do Not Call Registry
Companies to
Pay $25 Per Area Code, Up to Maximum Annual Fee of $7,375
for Entire List; Access to First Five Area Codes to be Provided
Free
The Federal Trade Commission today announced it has amended
the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) to establish fees for industry
access to the National Do Not Call Registry. Under the approved
fee schedule, the annual cost for companies to access phone
numbers in the registry will be $25 per area code, up to a
maximum annual fee of $7,375 to access numbers for the entire
country. There will be no charge for companies to access the
first five area codes of data. Currently, the national registry
includes more than 28 million registered numbers.
On October 1, 2003, the Commission will
begin enforcing the “do-not-call” requirements
of the TSR, and may bring actions against companies that make
telemarketing calls to consumers’ whose telephone numbers
are on the national registry. Starting September 1, these
companies will be able to access the national registry, by
area code, to obtain the phone numbers of consumers who do
not wish to receive their calls.
In responding to requests from commenters,
the FTC will allow companies that are not required to purchase
phone numbers on the registry – primarily those involved
in political fund-raising, charitable solicitations, and conducting
surveys – to access the registry voluntarily. To encourage
these companies to undertake such voluntary scrubbing of their
calling lists, the FTC will provide them with access to the
National Registry at no cost. Such companies must certify,
under penalty of law, that they are accessing the Registry
solely to prevent telephone calls to telephone numbers on
the Registry. This certification requirement will enable the
Commission to take appropriate steps against those who misuse
the Registry. The Commission’s goal is to enable these
companies to contact only those consumers who have chosen
not to place their names on the National Registry.
According to the final notice of proposed
rulemaking detailing the new fees, after a seller pays the
appropriate fee to access the National Registry, they would
be given a unique account number that they could provide to
any telemarketer or service provider that they employ on their
behalf. This account number would allow those entities to
access the National Registry, at no additional cost, on behalf
of their seller-client. It would be a violation for any seller
– or seller’s telemarketer – to initiate
an outbound call to any number in an area code unless the
seller has first paid the annual fee for that area code and
removed all registered numbers from their call list.
The final fee rule announced today also
makes a number of changes in the proposals originally set
forth in the revised fee notice of proposed rulemaking announced
earlier this year. Specifically, it allows telemarketers and
other service providers or sellers voluntarily to buy access
to the National Registry, if they wish to do so, and it adopts
a provision from the Federal Communication Commission’s
rules that specifically prohibit any entity that accesses
the Registry from participating in any arrangement to share
the cost of access, including any arrangement with a telemarketer
or service provider to divide the cost of access among various
clients to that telemarketer or service provider.
The final rule also establishes a “bright
line” test for which corporate divisions, subsidiaries,
and affiliates would be treated as separate sellers for purposes
of paying for access to the national registry. These entities
would be considered separate sellers if: 1) they are separately
incorporated or, for a non-corporate entity such as a partnership,
they are a similarly distinct legal entity; and 2) they have
different names or market their products under different names.
The complete text of the amended TSR is
available on the FTC’s Web site at the following address:
www.ftc.gov/os/2003/01/tsrfrn.pdf.
The final fee rule will be published in the Federal Register
shortly. Today the FTC also released detailed information
for telemarketers, sellers, and service providers explaining
how the National Do Not Call Registry will work. The Q&A
for Telemarketers and Sellers About the Do Not Call Provisions
of the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule are accessible at www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/dncbizalrt.htm.
Copies
of the Federal Register notice, as well as related information
for consumers and businesses, 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.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Cathy MacFarlane,
Office of Public Affairs
202-326-2710
(FTC File No. P034305)
(http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2003/07/tsrfeesfrn.htm)
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Related Documents:
16 C.F.R. Part 310:
Telemarketing Sales Rule Fees: Final Rule
- Text
of Federal Register Notice [PDF 86KB]
Q&A
for Telemarketers and Sellers About the Do Not Call Provisions
of the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule
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