Telemarketers are expecting the impending Federal Trade Commission telemarketing regulations, which will begin taking effect March 31, to cost a lot of money.
Even though it’s unclear just how expensive things could get, phone marketers believe they’ll have to pay fees running into the millions for such things as new equipment, training sales reps and purchasing the FTC list as well as 27 state files for each client (which is still required, even with a national list).
Part of the problem is that, at press time, the FTC had not come out with a final ruling that would set fees for telemarketers to comply with the new regulations, says Matt Mattingley, director of government affairs for the American Teleservices Association (ATA).
The amended Telemarketing Sales Rule calls for setting up a national do-not-call registry. Marketers would be required to clean their lists every three months using the registry and also to honor company-specific do-not-call requests. Fines for non-compliance could total $11,000 per day.
Other new measures include a 3% call-abandonment rate for automatic dialers and tough requirements on billing authorization. And telemarketers will be required to transmit their telephone number
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