New FCC regulations: Telemarketing requires written permission from customers

New FCC regulations: Telemarketing requires written permission from customers (Alberta Times) Recently, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the U.S. telecommunications industry regulatory authority, voted to pass a new...

New FCC regulations: Telemarketing requires written consent from customers (Alberta Times) Recently, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the U.S. telecommunications industry regulatory authority, voted to pass new regulations requiring telemarketers to obtain written consent from consumers before conducting telemarketing. The FCC will enforce stricter rules on automatic dialing phone promotions, ordering that automatic dialing or prerecorded calls must obtain the prior written consent of consumers, and companies cannot use automatic dialing promotions on the grounds of having a business relationship with consumers. At the FCC's first meeting in February, FCC Chairman Janachowski said: "Thousands of consumers have complained to us about these auto-dial promotions." At the same time, political activities such as charities and campaigns, or notifications of school closings, flight changes, etc. will not be affected by the new regulations. The new regulations focus on cracking down on marketing companies that conduct telemarketing for banks, insurance companies, phone companies, etc., as well as marketing companies that exploit legal loopholes to continue to conduct telemarketing to consumers on the FCC's prohibited call list. "The order we are taking will require marketing companies to obtain written consent from customers to participate," Janachowski said. The FCC said the auto-dial promotions violated consumers' privacy and said the auto-dialers consume paid time from cell phone users. The FCC also voted to pass a requirement for Internet phone service companies to report to the FCC network outages that affect users' ability to make 911 emergency calls. While this reporting requirement is already in effect for traditional telephone companies, the new regulations extend the scope of the regulations to approximately one-third of VoIP phone users' home phone services.