For Release: August 27, 2003
National Do Not Call Registry to Be Available to Telemarketers Beginning September 2,
2003
Labor Day Should Remain a Holiday!
The Federal Trade Commission today announced that telemarketing organizations will have
access to the National Do Not Call Registry on September 2, 2003, one day later than the opening
date originally announced. The URL to access telephone numbers in the registry,
www.telemarketing.donotcall.gov, will NOT be available until September 2, 2003. From that date
forward, organizations that complete application information, pay any applicable fees, and certify under
penalty of law that they are accessing the registry solely to prevent telephone calls to telephone numbers
on the registry, will be granted access to the consumer telephone numbers included in the registry.
Specific information about accessing telephone numbers
and downloading files from the national
registry is available at http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2003/08/tmkraccessinfo.htm..
Additional
information will be provided on the telemarketer Web site, www.telemarketing.donotcall.gov .
The Federal Trade Commission would like to remind organizations of the details included in the
final rules establishing fees for the Telemarketing Sales Rule
(http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2003/07/tsrfeesfrn.htm):
- The annual cost for organizations to access
phone numbers in the registry will be $25 per area code, with a maximum
annual fee of $7,375 to access numbers for the entire
country, including U.S. territories. There will be no charge for companies to
access the
first five area codes of data.
- Fees paid via credit card will permit the transfer
of data immediately, if the payment is approved. Electronic funds transfer
(EFT) will require
the organization to wait
approximately three days for the funds to clear before data access will be
provided.
- Sellers and exempt entities can pay the fee
directly or through their telemarketers or
service providers.
- After paying the appropriate fee, organizations
are provided with a unique account number that they can provide to any
telemarketer or service provider that they employ
on their behalf. The account number will allow those entities to access the
national
registry, at no additional cost, on behalf of the seller-client.
- On subsequent
visits to the Web site, www.telemarketing.donotcall.gov,
either a full updated list of numbers from selected area codes, or a more
limited list, consisting only
of changes to the registry, will be available for download.
- Any entity that
accesses the registry is prohibited 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.
- There is a "bright line" test to determine whether
corporate divisions, subsidiaries, and affiliates are 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 non-corporate entities such as a partnerships,
they are similarly
distinct legal entities; and 2) they have different names or market their products
under
different names.
- The FTC will allow organizations that are not required
to purchase the list - political fund-raisers, non-profits, and those
conducting surveys - to access the registry
voluntarily. Numbers in the national registry will be available to these organizations
at
no cost.
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. 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
(http://www.ftc.cgov/opa/2003/08/tmkraccess.htm)
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Related Documents:
Specific
information about accessing telephone numbers and downloading
files from the national
registry
Business Information:
Complying With The Telemarketing Sales Rule
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