While many consumers today assume they know the laws governing direct marketing, they are usually unaware that there are lines direct marketers can cross and the rules tend to get a little hazy. For instance, a telephone interviewer is able to call numbers on the National Do-Not-Call Registry, but a telemarketer is not. A financial institution can disclose account numbers to non-affiliate parties to market the same institution’s products or services, but not to non-affiliate parties that use the information to market themselves.
In the last few years, the Federal Trade Commission has set up laws to help protect the privacy of consumers. In 2001, the Gramm Leech Bliley Act was put into effect to protect the privacy of consumer and customer’s financial information. In 2004, new laws governing Spam were regulated and a National do-not-call-list appeared in 2005. These laws do not mean that direct marketers have no control over the limitations that govern them. In order to keep you in control of your direct marketing campaigns, American Name Services would like to offer you some do’s and don’ts of the new privacy laws that have been hitting direct marketers this century.
The Federal Trade Commission and other State law enforcement officials started to manage the National Do-Not-Call Registry January 1, 2005, which allowed consumers to register their number and not receive telemarketing calls for five years. After January 1, telemarketers, covered by the FTC rule, must update their directories every 31 days to include those numbers who have recently registered. If it has been 31 days since a consumer has registered with the National Do-Not-Call Registry, then by law, they need to be on your do not call list. Their phone numbers and possibly their email addresses will be submitted. These will be kept private.
The registry was created after a three-year review of the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR). The FTC held numerous workshops, meetings, and briefings to solicit feedback from interested parties and considered over 64,000 public comments, most of which favored creating the registry. What does this mean for you, the direct marketer? It means that you are still allowed to talk to consumers and customers in the same circumstances. The following dos and don’ts that accompany the register will demonstrate how that is possible.
Consumers are under certain restrictions on how many numbers they can register and who’s phone numbers they can register. If they register online, they are only allowed to submit three numbers at a time. They are only able to submit one number over the phone at a time because it has to be from the phone number they want to register. Consumers can register their cell phones; however, FCC regulations that had prohibited telemarketers from using automated dialers to call cell phone numbers are still in force. Automated dialers are standard in the industry, so this merely means that most telemarketers are still barred from calling consumers on their cell phones without their consent. In some cases, it is necessary for consumers to register their cell phones. The federal government does not maintain a national cell phone registry.
In some circumstances, businesses can call consumers who have placed themselves on the registry. For instance, Business-to-Business calls are not covered under the Registry, nor are Business-to-customer calls. You are not at fault for calling someone up who has inquired about, or submitted an application to, your company; or who is a customer that has made purchases from your company. By purchasing something from your company, that consumer establishes a business relationship with the company. As a result, even if their number is on the National Do Not Call Registry, they can still be called for up to 18 months after their last purchase or delivery from you, or your last payment to it, unless you are asked not to call again. In that case, you must honor their request not to call. If you subsequently call again, you may be subject to a fine of up to $11,000.
If, however; you are a telephone survey company, a political organization or a charity then you are also not included under the Registry rules. Consumers can still ask that you not call them, but they must tell you that personally. There is one exception and that is if you call to conduct a survey and still try to sell them something, then you are under the same restrictions as telemarketers.
The FTC reports that there are 85 million people currently registered with the National Registry and that violators of this new law can be fined thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars. While consumers are given an easier method to be placed on do-not-call lists, direct marketers still have venues with which to market by telephone to their potential and loyal customers.