FTC Bans Prerecorded Telemarketing Messages
Telemarketers may no longer send prerecorded messages to consumers’ telephones, unless the consumer permitted them to do so, said the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC voted 4-0 to approve the ban, one of two Telemarketing Sales Rule amendments issued Tuesday. The second modifies the TSR’s method for calculating the maximum permissible level of call abandonment. “Just like the provisions of the Do Not Call Registry, these changes will protect consumers’ privacy,” said FTC Chairman William Kovacic. “The amendments now directly enable consumers to choose whether they want to receive prerecorded telemarketing calls.”
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Starting Dec. 1, telemarketers must include an “automated keypress or voice-activated interactive opt-out mechanism” at the start of all prerecorded calls, the FTC said. Starting Sept. 1, 2009, telemarketers must obtain a consumer’s signed, written agreement before they may send prerecorded messages, it said. Sellers can get permission in any manner allowed by the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, it said. For-profit telefunders delivering messages on behalf of a nonprofit to the nonprofit’s members or past donors don’t have to get written consent, but they must still include the opt-out function, the FTC said.
Prerecorded calls must allow the telephone to ring for at least 15 seconds or four rings before the call is disconnected, the FTC said. The prerecorded message must start within two seconds of the consumer’s greeting, and the message must immediately disclose how the consumer can opt out of future calls, the FTC said.
The rule changes don’t bar informational prerecorded messages, for example flight cancellation or service appointment notices, the FTC said, because they don’t try to sell anything to the called party. The FTC specifically exempted healthcare-related calls subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
The second TSR amendment aims to reduce the frequency of “hang-up” and “dead air” telemarketing calls. That occurs when predictive dialing machines call a consumer, but no salesperson is available to talk. Starting Oct. 1, the FTC will require that at least 97 percent of non-machine telemarketer calls be connected to a salesperson within two seconds after the consumer answers.
The amendments resulted from an FTC rulemaking opened in 2004. Initially, the rulemaking proposed a change to the TSR allowing sellers to deliver prerecorded messages if they had an established business relationship with the consumer. In late 2006, after receiving much opposition, the FTC revised the proposal to the broad prohibition adopted Tuesday.