Telemarketing 

The Amended TSR at a Glance

Briefly stated, the amended TSR:

• supplements the company-specific Do Not Call provision of the original Rule with new provisions based on a National Do Not Call Registry.
• creates an “established business relationship” exception to the National Do Not Call provisions so that a company may call a consumer with whom it has such a relationship, even if the consumer’s number is on the Registry.
• allows a company to call a consumer who has given the company express written permission to call, even if the consumer’s number is on the Registry.
• prohibits denying or interfering with a consumer’s Do Not Call request.
• prohibits misuse of Do Not Call lists.
• covers charitable solicitations placed by for-profit telefunders. The National Do Not Call Registry provisions do not apply to for-profit telefunders; rather, for-profit telefunders must keep their own Do Not Call lists and honor donors’ requests not to be called.
• requires sellers and telemarketers to obtain express verifiable authorization when payment is made by methods other than credit card or debit card, and limits the use of the written confirmation method.
• requires sellers and telemarketers offering credit card loss protection plans to disclose specific information.
• prohibits misrepresentations in the sale of credit card loss protection plans.
• requires sellers and telemarketers making an offer that involves a negative option feature to disclose specific information.
• prohibits misrepresentations about negative options.
• specifies that all required disclosures be made truthfully.
• requires additional disclosures for prize promotions.
• prohibits disclosing or receiving, for consideration, unencrypted consumer account numbers.
• requires sellers and telemarketers to get a consumer’s express informed consent before submitting the consumer’s billing information for payment.
• sets out guidelines for what constitutes evidence of express informed consent in transactions involving “pre-acquired account information” and “free-to-pay conversion” offers.
• requires telemarketers, for purposes of Caller ID, to transmit the telephone number, and, when made available by the telemarketer’s telephone company, the telemarketer’s name.
• prohibits telemarketers from abandoning any outbound telephone call, subject to a safe harbor.
• extends the applicability of most provisions of the Rule to “upselling.”
• requires telemarketers and sellers to maintain records of express informed consent and express agreement.
• narrows certain exemptions.
• clarifies that facsimile transmissions, electronic mail, and similar methods of delivery are direct mail for purposes of the direct mail exemption.

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