The Federal Trade Commission has announced a proposal to revise its Pay-Per-Call Rule
(formerly referred to as the 900-Number Rule, 16 CFR Part 308), which was published in the
Federal Register on October 30, 1998. The proposal includes, among other things, new
provisions that will combat telephone bill cramming -- unauthorized charges on consumers'
phone bills. The proposal is the result of extensive analysis by the Commission of the
effectiveness of the Rule and developments in the marketplace since 1993. In addition to
reviewing written comments received in response to an earlier Federal Register Notice
about the Rule (published on March 12, 1997), the FTC convened a two-day public workshop
in June 1997 attended by consumer representatives, industry members and other interested
stakeholders. The proposed revisions are based in part on the Telecommunications Act of
1996, which granted the FTC authority to broaden the scope of the Pay-Per-Call Rule to
encompass audiotext services that may be accessed through dialing patterns other than the
900 exchange. A link to the current rule, as well as to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
and the corresponding press release can be found below. In addition, staff of the FTC have
prepared a comparison of the current and proposed rules, which is also listed below, as a
link.
Pay-Per-Call Rule, 16 CFR Part 308 (Current)
[66K]
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Notice of submission to OMB for Paperwork Reduction Act
clearance with request for public comment, 67 FR 77066
(12/16/2002) [HTML]
[PDF 44K]
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Proposed
Changes to the Pay-Per-Call Rule (1998-1999)
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Notice of submission to OMB for Paperwork
Reduction Act clearance with request for public comment, 64 Fed. Reg. 70,031-70,033 (12/15/1999) [HTML]
[PDF 125K]
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Post Workshop Supplemental Comments |
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Public Workshop Transcripts
- Transcript of May 20, 1999 [PDF
497K]
- Transcript of May 21, 1999 [PDF
361K]
|
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News Release
announcing Workshop (05/19/99) |
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Workshop Agenda |
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Workshop Participants |
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Comments received in
response to Notice of Proposed Rulemaking |
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Comment Period Extended to March 10, 1999
- News Release announcing comment period
extension (12/23/98)
- Federal Register Notice [PDF
360k]
|
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News Release
announcing proposed rule (10/23/98) |
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Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
Note: This document is available in two formats. The Federal
Register version should be used for official citation, however, it does not include
all of the italics and formatting found in the Commission Document. See Press Release of 12/23/98 for more
information.
- Commission Document [PDF 21K] (10/22/98)
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- Federal Register Notice [PDF 360K] (10/30/98, at 63 FR 58524)
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Staff Comparison of Current and Proposed Rules [PDF 90K] |
Request for Comment and Rule
Review (1997)
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News Release announcing the rule review (03/11/97) |
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Federal Register Notice (3/12/97, at 62 FR 11750)
Notice that Commission conducting rule review and requst for public comment. |
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Public
Comments received in response to Notice |
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News
Release announcing Public Workshop (06/17/97)
Public Workshop to occur on June 19-20, 1997 |
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Public Workshop
Transcripts
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Last Updated: Friday, April 18, 2003 |