FTC Approves Publication of New Rules for Telemarketing Fees

Also on April 28, the Commission approved the publication of a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register that would amend the Telemarketing Sales Rule to revise the fees charged for industry access to the National Do Not Call Registry. The FTC is currently accepting comments on these proposed fee changes. Under the proposed new fee structure, the annual fee for each area code of data accessed would become $62, and the maximum amount charged to entities accessing 280 area codes or more would become $17,050.
The proposed rulemaking would continue to allow telemarketers to obtain the first five area codes of data for free, and would still allow those entities exempt from the Registry's requirements to obtain access at no charge. The Commission is, however, requesting comments on whether telemarketers should still be permitted to access a certain number of area codes for free and address the potential impact of a change to this provision.

Telemarketers are required to renew their subscriptions to the National Do Not Call Registry once a year, and must “scrub” their call lists once every 31 days. To date, consumers registered approximately 122.6 million telephone numbers on the Registry. The FTC is accepting public comments on the proposed rulemaking until June 1, 2006. Pending public comment, the new fee schedule will go into effect on September 1, 2006.

The Commission vote approving publication of the Federal Register notice was 5-0.

Camelia C. Mazard
202-589-1837
cmazard@dbmlawgroup.com