New Telemarketing Ruling Effective December and September 2009

Although most newspapers do not fall into this category, TCN would like to post as a courtesy the following notice.

Prerecorded informational calls such as new start verifications, carrier communications, and most other customer service functions are unaffected by this rule. Also, newspapers that only call within their own state regardless of the kind of calls being made, are exempt from this ruling. This only applies to SALES CALLS that are done over your newspaper’s home state boundaries

For those newspapers who use TCN over state lines for the purpose of making sales, the following amendments have been made to the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR):

Require sellers and telemarketers to provide a key-press or voice-activated opt-out mechanism promptly at the outset of any prerecorded telemarketing message call that could be answered by a consumer as of December 1, 2008. (7 key in TCN)
Required as of December 1, 2008, prerecorded messages left on answering machines and voicemail services to provide a toll-free number for consumers to call to process, automatically, Do Not Call request.
Prohibit, as of September 1, 2009, telemarketers from delivering prerecorded messages—those part of a campaign to induce, directly or indirectly, a purchase of a good or service–to consumers who have not previously agreed in writing to receive such calls. As of September 1, 2009, there will be no exception for prerecorded TELEMARKETING messages delivered to consumers with whom the seller has an established business relationship. (Telemarketers can still make “live calls” to consumers whom the seller has an established business relationship.) Telemarketers will be allowed to make prerecorded TELEMARKETING calls pursuant to an EBR exception until September 1, 2009, as long as the calls comply with the new automated keypress or voice-activated opt-out mechanism.
In practice, the amended TSR could adversely affect, perhaps to a significant degree, newspapers’ ability to conduct renewal and other prerecorded telemarketing on an interstate basis (the FTC’s jurisdiction extends only to interstate telemarketing).

With the release of P3, the ability to restrict your calls to stay within your state’s boundaries by area codes allows for more flexibity to comply with new regulations.

If you are a property that routinely makes sales calls outside of your state and you think this new ruling may apply to you, please feel free to contact us at tcn@tcnbroadcasting.com, or by calling 866.745.1900. TCN will work with your paper to make sure your paper is compliant with the new law. For more information on the new ruling, you can click on any of the links provided below.