US consumers can register on-line at donotcall.gov to say that
they do not want to receive telemarketing calls. The FTC is backing
this with Do Not Call provisions of the Telemarketing Rules which
it will start enforcing from 1st October.
The FTC promises that, on that date, consumers who register by
31st August will start to notice a downturn in the number of
telemarketing calls they receive. Some calls, however, such as
those from political organizations, solicitation calls on behalf of
charities, and calls to conduct surveys, are not covered by the
National Registry requirements. Consumers who sign up for the
registry may still receive these calls.
In addition, companies with which consumers have an established
business relationship may call for up to 18 months after the last
purchase, payment or delivery, even if the consumer's name is on
the National Do Not Call Registry.
Companies to which consumers have made an inquiry or submitted
an application can call for three months. If a consumer asks a
company not to call, however, that request trumps an existing
business relationship.
If consumers place their numbers on the National Registry, they
may give written permission to particular companies that they want
to hear from. If consumers do not put their number on the National
Registry, they can still prohibit individual telemarketers from
calling by asking them, one by one, to put them on their company's
do not call list.
After October 1, telemarketers will be required to access the
registry every three months and scrub numbers on it from their call
lists. Telemarketers who call a number on the list could be fined
up to $11,000 per call.
Speaking today, FTC Chairman Timothy Muris said, "consumer
response has been enthusiastic." On Friday, seven million telephone
numbers were logged into the system; Saturday the number slowed to
4.6 million; and Sunday the number was two million.
In the UK, the Telephone Preference Service was set up in 1995
as a voluntary self-regulatory mechanism to enable consumers to
opt-out of receiving unsolicited sales and marketing calls.
After the Telecommunications (Data Protection and Privacy)
Regulations of 1999 came into force on 1st May of that year, OFTEL
issued an invitation to tender for the management of the
Regulations' Telephone and Fax Opt-Out Schemes. The DMA was awarded
the contract to run the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) and Fax
Preference Service (FPS).
Like the US scheme, the TPS enables Individuals to register
their objection to receiving direct marketing calls with a central
service. Telemarketing companies are able to receive the list of
numbers that have been registered by subscribing to the TPS.
