Bob's Do-Not-Call Protection Blog

Unfortunately, if you use the phone, the FTC, FCC, and State AGs, along with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Telephone Consumer Protection Act, consider you a telemarketer. And hey, you may feel safe with your calling and follow-up procedures now. But how unfortunate if you’re selling, say, deregulated electricity to several states and a cell phone owner decides to bring you to court with his or her predatory attorney. 

The first question asked will be “do you scrub for cell phones?”—as of October 16 when the law changed to require written permission on auto assisted and automatic telephone dialing system/voice broadcast calls.

And that means you Mr. Real Estate, Life Insurance and Mortgage Broker that keeps telling me you don't use the phone. That you're not telemarketers. That you're exempt. That you don't understand! Your IT and technology directors are pretty good at creating number-checking tools that won't hold up in court. They're relatively easy to put together. You download all the DNC and TCPA related lists, and you’re off and running. Easy, right?

But not so fast. When the State AG, FTC, FCC, or CFPB shows up, that’s when you find out Do Not Call & TCPA Legislations are a Legal Issue: Are your number checking records available in the timeframe and format required; do they include cells, state lists, and company specific internal lists. If not, you're just fooling yourself.

If you're like a lot of tech-savvy entrepreneurs, social network sites like LinkedIn, Twtitter, and Facebook are natural sources of Business to Business (B2B) leads. It's never been easier to make a personal connection with business prospects. Everyone's putting their contact information online; it's ripe for the taking! Unfortunately, many of the numbers listed on these sites—even for businesses—are wireless mobile phone numbers, and, according to the new rules of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, you can't call them with any kind of auto-assisted dialing. "Business cells" are no longer exempt from Do-Not-Call laws.

Overwhelmed by the choices in Do Not Call law compliance companies on the internet? Everything from “Free Do Not Call Compliance” to “Download our software for a free trial and you can access the National Registry.” Maybe your listing supplier has offered to protect you from the DNC laws with an unregistered scrub. (Don’t fall for this one, as this is called a “courtesy scrub” and won’t hold up in a thorough safe harbor assessment inquiry from State and Federal Agencies.) 

"I don't need to scrub the Do Not Call because - you know - I'm just doing B2B!" Christine Reilly, Partner and Cochair of the TCPA Compliance and Class Action Defense practice of Manatt Phelps and Phillips says she hears that alot from clients. Here she talks about the Do Not Call Laws and business-to-business (B2B) calling restrictions, and her informal conversations with the FTC on it.

If somebody tells you they’ll protect you without any registrations, walk away. The basis of compliance is always registration with the National List. It costs $59 per year, per area code and the first 5 codes are free. You must renew every year. Registration for the whole Country is $17,000. B2B and Established Business Relationship companies may qualify for an exemption to the fees. State registrations are separate. Note: state telemarketer licensing and exemptions, state DNC registrations, wireless portability lists, and other nuances are beyond the scope of this discussion. Make sure to consult your attorney before making any DNC / TCPA decisions.

While the federal government prohibits making cell phone calls using automatic dialers, five states do not allow telemarketing calls to cell phone numbers at all - even with manual dialing. And this list of mobile no call states will probably expand as more and more consumers express annoyance with receiving marketing calls on their cell phones.

As an independent agent calling consumers and/or businesses, your challenge is how to identify and avoid calling cell phone numbers in these states. After all, they might not be on any Do Not Call list at all.

The worst nightmare a Call Center Manager has is of a rogue or runaway cold calling associate—a bit short, a bit curt, a bit out of line when calling consumers. Fed-up with rejection all day long. Gone to the rest room to never return. Can’t remember when the last time a consumer actually told them the truth!

As you may know, the Healthcare Financial Management Association and ACA International have released new medical collection guidelines to their members. This has spurred a myriad of credit bureaus, consumer protection agencies, healthcare organizations and others to try to cooperate with each other, build relationships and protect their bottom lines. Their ultimate goal, of course, is to contact consumers with medical debt without causing problems with HIPAA, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) or the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

You’re real excited to bring this new business to your call center. But the whole Do-Not-Call TCPA regulations liability exposure thing is new to you. You’re selling Energy, or Satellite TV, or Granite & Glass table tops and you need to contact consumers. But this company, on whose behalf you’ll be calling, wants you to somehow certify you have complied with the DNC & TCPA Laws - without cell scrubbing, or a subscription authorization number, or express written consents to help protect you from compliance statutes.

You’re right to be concerned. There is generally a good (and expensive) reason companies will insist an outsourced vendor, marketer, or fulfillment house handle the Do Not Call Law registrations and compliance chores for them.