The rule prohibits interstate prerecorded telemarketing calls to consumers who have not previously agreed in writing to receive them. There will be no exception for prerecorded messages to consumers with whom the seller has an established business relationship (EBR). Sellers may continue to make "live" calls to consumers with whom they have an EBR.
Fines jumped up to $16K for each call made to each person who did not sign a release to receive automated calls
Penalties can be levied against the call provider, call carrier and company who contracted the calls to be made to the consumers.
After September 1st deadline to avoid $16,000 fines per illegal phone call delivered. These finds can be levied on both the call provider, and company making the calls. To protect yourself and company from these large fines you will be required to show proof of a signature that the person agreed to allow automated phone calls to be made to the number supplied.
Exceptions:
1. Healthcare-related prerecorded message calls that are subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) from the prohibition on telemarketing calls that deliver prerecorded messages;
2. No written agreement is required for all charitable solicitation calls placed by for-profit telemarketers (tele-funders) that deliver prerecorded messages on behalf of non-profits to members of, or previous donors to, the nonprofit, but require that such calls include a prompt key press or voice-activated opt-out mechanism;
3. Calls made to business for products and services other than office or cleaning supplies require no opt-out or permission from the company to call and hours for calls can be 24/7Calls originating within a state and termination in the same state. AGAIN, this new ruling has no effect on calls that are made to phone numbers in the same state and the business sending the calls.
Automated calling rules:
Expressly prohibit telemarketing sales calls that deliver prerecorded messages, whether answered in person by a consumer or by an answering machine or voicemail service, unless the seller has previously obtained the recipient's signed, written agreement to receive such calls;
Permit sellers to obtain the required permission for prerecorded message sales calls from a consumer in any manner permitted by the Electronic Signatures In Global and National Commerce Act (E-SIGN Act);
Require that, by December 1, 2008, sellers and telemarketers provide, at the outset of all prerecorded messages, an automated key press or voice-activated interactive opt-out mechanism so that consumers can opt out as easily as they can from a live telemarketing call;
End the FTC's current policy of forbearing from bringing enforcement actions against sellers and telemarketers who place prerecorded calls that meet certain specified conditions that would be inconsistent with the new requirements; but
Permit sellers, as under the forbearance policy, to continue for one year after the rule's publication to place calls delivering prerecorded messages to consumers with whom they have an established business relationship, after which no prerecorded message calls can be made to consumers without their express permission.
Unless a telemarketer has a person's prior consent to do otherwise, it is violation of the Rule to make outbound telemarketing calls to the person's home outside the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 p.m.
Telemarketing call must:
1) allow the telephone to ring for at least 15 seconds or four rings before an unanswered call is disconnected;
2) begin the prerecorded message within two seconds of a completed greeting by the consumer who answers;
3) disclose at the outset of the call that the recipient may ask to be placed on the company's do-not-call list at any time during the message;
4) in cases where the call is answered by a person, make an automated interactive voice and/or key-press-activated opt-out mechanism available during the message that adds the phone number to the company's do-not-call list and then immediately ends the call; and
5) in cases where the call is answered by an answering machine or voicemail, provide a toll-free number that allows the person called to be connected to an automated interactive voice and/or key-press-activated opt-out mechanism anytime after the message is received. The telemarketer, while complying with each of these provisions, also must be in compliance with all other requirements of the TSR and other federal and state laws.
Solutions:
1) Make only calls that originate and terminate in one state and not cross state lines. I have spoken with the FTC twice this week and these new rules DO NOT APPLY to calling campaigns within a state. If you read the new rules it does not effect intrastate calls, only interstate calls. Small businesses who wish to use automated calls will still be able to do so without fear of fines or penalties from the FTC.
2) Purchase Legal OPT-IN purchased from repitable suppliers who have obtained written permision from people to receive phone calls about your products and services. These FTC legal phone numbers are better quality than dialing phones based on demographic data because these people are actually requesting that they be contacted with promotions and offers for specific items. The cost for these phone numbers are comparable with the demographic data generated phone numbers and do not require scrubbing against the national do not call list. So these numbers are targeted, low cost at 3-5 cents each, based on the number purchased and shield you from fines and litigations by unscrupulous people. Many automated phone call companies provide this type of phone numbers to their clients at an even lower cost. An example would be www.RoboTalker.com who has recently introduced this service to protect its clients from FTC fines and frivolous lawsuits by consumers.
One source of these types of phone numbers at: http://robotalker.com/products/ftc-legal-phone-numbers.aspx
3) Only autodial business becasue they are not covered by the new law.
Thomas Mahoney
Director of sales for an automated phone call provider
Visit me at: http://www.robotalker.com for more information and details about how to figure ROI for automated calling.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Thomas_Michael_Mahoney
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