Question 1

If a customer bought from us last year, can we call their registered number?

Accepted Answer

Only while the established-business-relationship window is open, and never after the customer asks the company to stop calling. Under the current definition, the relationship must rest on a purchase or other financial transaction within the 540 days before the call.  It may also rest on an inquiry or application within the 90 days before it.  The exception also fails once the person has stated that he or she does not wish to receive such calls under the seller-specific rule.  How the window is measured matters: Dish worked from lists of current customers and disconnect dates instead of last-payment dates and was found to have made over 15 million illegal registry calls.

Question 2

Does a web form or sweepstakes entry count as consent to call a registered number?

Accepted Answer

Not unless it is a signed writing that clearly evidences authorization for calls by or on behalf of a specific party and states the number to be called.  Commission staff has expressly stated that attempting to obtain a consumer’s “express agreement” under false pretenses, such as through a prize promotion or sweepstakes entry form, is not an affirmative defense.  In a lead-generation case, the FTC alleged that consent collected on behalf of long lists of marketing partners was not consent for a specific seller.

Question 3

Does it matter that the person who picked up never signed up for the registry, or that they agreed to talk once connected?

Accepted Answer

Neither fact cures the call. A defendant violates the rule by dialing a number on the registry, whether or not the person reached is the one who registered it.  In Day Pacer, the court held that a consumer’s later agreement to be transferred did not show that the dialing vendors had consent to place the original call.

Question 4

How soon after someone registers do we have to stop calling?

Accepted Answer

Within about 31 days, because a seller relying on the safe harbor must scrub against a registry file obtained no more than 31 days before each call.  One FTC order drew the same 31-day line, barring calls to any number on the registry more than 31 days after the number is added.

Question 5

Do registrations expire, so that we can call older numbers again?

Accepted Answer

No. Registered numbers may not be removed except as the statute provides or at the request of the person to whom the number is assigned.  As the Dish Network opinion described the Do-Not-Call Improvements Act, numbers stay on the registry indefinitely unless the individual requests removal or the number has been disconnected and reassigned.

Question 6

Are we responsible when an outside call center or dealer calls registered numbers for us?

Accepted Answer

Yes, a seller that causes a telemarketer to call a registered number violates the rule.  In Dish’s case, the court provided that if any authorized telemarketer or retailer violates the rules, Dish is liable as if it had placed the calls itself.  The ADT consent decree showed the kind of oversight regulators expect, requiring due diligence on authorized telemarketers before they are engaged.

Question 7

If a customer asked one of our brands to stop calling, do we have to stop calling for everything we sell?

Accepted Answer

Only for the seller whose goods or services are being offered, and where the line falls depends on who the seller is. The seller-specific rule bars calls to a person who has stated that he or she does not want calls made by or on behalf of the seller whose goods or services are being offered.  In Corporations for Character, the court held that people on the defendants’ film-DVD do-not-call list were not on the list for the Velveteen Rabbit ticket campaign, because that campaign sold a different product on behalf of a different party.  The result was different in the Dish appeal, where the court treated Dish and its agent retailers collectively as one “seller whose goods or services are being offered.”

Question 8

Are we protected if we bought the list from a broker that says it is scrubbed?

Accepted Answer

No. In one case the FTC alleged that a caller who relied on list brokers’ assurances still called numbers protected by the registry.  The Dish court held that neither good faith nor compliance with industry standard is a defense.  In a medical-alert case, the court noted that the owner admitted he never confirmed whether the numbers called had been filtered against the registry.  It granted the FTC summary judgment on the registry count after he offered no admissible evidence of an established business relationship.

Question 9

Do charities have to scrub against the national registry?

Accepted Answer

Not under the registry provision: solicitations to induce charitable contributions via outbound telephone calls are not covered by the registry prohibition.  The seller-specific list still applies, because sellers and charitable organizations must maintain entity-specific do-not-call lists and add consumers to them on request.  As an FTC brief explains the rule, the Commission lacks jurisdiction over nonprofit corporations, so the rule does not apply to charitable organizations themselves.  For-profit companies that call seeking donations on behalf of charities are likewise exempt from the registry, but the Commission requires them to comply with the entity-specific provision.  Calling the campaign charitable does not settle the question: in Corporations for Character, calls built around selling DVDs were not treated as solicitations of charitable contributions even though the campaign’s purpose was to raise money for a charity.

Question 10

Are business-to-business calls exempt from the registry rule?

Accepted Answer

Generally yes, but only for calls that actually reach a business and that aim at a purchase by the business itself, and the exemption has a carve-out for retail sales of nondurable office or cleaning supplies. The rule exempts calls between a telemarketer and any business to induce the purchase of goods or services or a charitable contribution by the business, except calls to induce the retail sale of nondurable office or cleaning supplies, and the registry provision does not apply to sellers or telemarketers of those supplies.  A caller’s intent does not decide the question. In the Pointbreak matter, the report described another court’s holding that the exemption applies solely to calls between telemarketers and businesses and does not turn on the telemarketers’ subjective intentions.  It found a claim that registered consumer numbers were called in error because they had been reassigned from business lines unsupported by evidence.

Do Not Call (DNC)

Definition

Key legal rules

Why these rules exist

Enforcement examples

United States v. Corporations for Character, L.C. (family-film DVDs and theater tickets)

United States v. Media Mix 365, LLC (home solar lead generation)

FTC v. Day Pacer LLC (post-secondary education lead generation)

United States v. Dish Network, L.L.C. (satellite television programming)

United States v. Craftmatic Industries, Inc. (telemarketing through sweepstakes entry forms)

United States v. ADT Security Services, Inc. (home security systems)

Exposure

FAQs

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