FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule

The FTC's current Telemarketing Sales Rule "call abandonment" provisions say a telemarketer may use a prerecorded message - rather than a live sales representative - in no more than three percent of calls answered by a live consumer, not an answering machine. The FCC's similar rule has an exception for calls delivering prerecorded messages to consumers with whom the seller has an established business relationship.

A telemarketing firm, Voice Mail Broadcasting Corporation, petitioned the FTC to allow telemarketers to use prerecorded messages when they call consumers with whom they have an established business relationship. The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) also petitioned the FTC to revise the TSR call abandonment safe harbor provision, which requires telemarketers to use "technology that ensures abandonment of no more than three percent of all calls answered by a person, measured per day per calling campaign," asking the agency to substitute "measured over a 30-day period" instead.

The FTC's current Telemarketing Sales Rule "call abandonment" provisions say a telemarketer may use a prerecorded message - rather than a live sales representative - in no more than three percent of calls answered by a live consumer, not an answering machine. The FCC's similar rule has an exception for calls delivering prerecorded messages to consumers with whom the seller has an established business relationship.

A telemarketing firm, Voice Mail Broadcasting Corporation, petitioned the FTC to allow telemarketers to use prerecorded messages when they call consumers with whom they have an established business relationship. The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) also petitioned the FTC to revise the TSR call abandonment safe harbor provision, which requires telemarketers to use "technology that ensures abandonment of no more than three percent of all calls answered by a person, measured per day per calling campaign," asking the agency to substitute "measured over a 30-day period" instead.

In response to an FTC notice of proposed rulemaking and request for comments on prerecorded messages and call abandonment, NAA met with the agency and filed comments regarding newspapers' ability to use prerecorded informational messages to provide subscribers with information about their subscription services. NAA asked the FTC to amend its proposed rules to permit oral consent from subscribers for certain prerecorded sales messages instead of requiring express written consent, and to grandfather certain requirements for pre-existing subscribers. NAA expressed support for the proposal to modify the call abandonment rate from three percent “per day per campaign” to three percent per 30-day period in a calling campaign. The FTC is expected to issue final rules in late 2007.

First Published:
August 27, 2007