By Lesley Fair

The National Do Not Call Registry gives consumers a choice – and a voice – in whether they want to get telemarketing calls.  Businesses need to re-evaluate their compliance programs in light of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) law enforcement actions targeting Do Not Call violations.

1. Violating the law can be costly.   In one of the FTC’s largest civil penalty cases ever, DIRECTV agreed to pay more than $5.3 million to settle charges that the satellite giant and others it hired to promote its services violated the Do Not Call provisions of the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR).  The FTC’s case against DIRECTV should make it clear that the FTC means business when it comes to Do Not Call enforcement.
2. An explanation of “facilitation.”  Section 310.3(b) of the TSR makes it illegal to “provide substantial assistance or support” to any seller or telemarketer when you “know or consciously avoid knowing” that the seller or telemarketer is violating certain provisions of the Rule.  In its first civil penalty action against a service provider for violating this provision, the FTC settled charges that Entrepreneurial Strategies, Ltd. assisted another company, Debt Management Foundation Services, evade compliance with Do Not Call by helping Debt Management organize and operate as a sham nonprofit corporation.  What’s the lesson to be learned?  Even if you’re not the one doing the dialing, you’re liable for violating the TSR if you help others call numbers protected by the Registry.
3. You keep me hanging on.  An amendment to the TSR bans all telemarketing calls that deliver prerecorded messages unless a consumer has agreed in advance to accept such calls from the seller. Sellers and telemarketers who transmit these “robocalls” face penalties of up to $16,000 per call.  Businesses can still place recorded calls to their customers that deliver purely informational messages – for example, notifying them that their flight has been cancelled of that they have an upcoming appointment.
4. Honor consumers’ wishes.  Companies are allowed to call numbers on the Registry if they belong to consumers with whom they have an “established business relationship.”  However, once consumers tell a company that they don’t want to get those calls in the future, you must comply with that request.  The FTC has won multi-million dollar settlements from companies that have fallen short in their obligation to maintain their own “entity-specific” Do Not Call list.
5. You can run, but you can’t h-ID-e.   The TSR requires companies to transmit an accurate telephone number for caller ID purposes.  The FTC has taken tough legal action against companies that have transmitted phony caller ID information.  

For more information, check out Complying with the Telemarketing Sales Rule available at business.ftc.gov.         

Lesley Fair is an attorney in the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection who specializes in business compliance.