The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates national banks in the United States, yesterday released an updated guide for how it will examine for compliance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The document can be used by anyone to serve as a primer on the TCPA and what is — and is not allowed — under the statute.
Why This Matters: Understanding what is and what is not allowed under the TCPA can be complicated. Having the do’s and don’ts laid out in front of you in a relatively easy-to-understand document can make complying with the statute that much easier and make companies less likely to violate any of its provisions.
What It Includes: Directions for what has to be included when using artificial or prerecorded voices to send messages to consumers, the prohibitions on using an automated telephone dialing service when making calls to cell phones, and the prohibitions on making prerecorded calls to residential lines, to name just a few of the sections.
- The guidance also includes how companies can get out of trouble if they accidentally call a number for someone who has registered his or her phone number for the Do Not Call registry.
Did You Know: You are not allowed to abandon more than 3% of your telemarketing calls that are answered by a live person over a 30-day period for any single calling campaign? If a live representative is not available, the telemarketer must provide:
- A prerecorded identification and opt-out message that is limited to disclosing that the call was for “telemarketing purposes” and states the name of the business, entity, or individual on whose behalf the call was placed, and a telephone number for such business, entity, or individual that permits the called person to make a do-not-call request during regular business hours for the duration of the telemarketing campaign; provided, that, such telephone number may not be a 900 number or any other number for which charges exceed local or long distance transmission charges; and
- An automated, interactive voice- and/or key press-activated opt-out mechanism that enables
the called person to make a do-not-call request prior to terminating the call, including brief
explanatory instructions on how to use such a mechanism. When the called person elects to
opt-out using such a mechanism, the mechanism must automatically record the called
person’s number to the seller’s do-not-call list and immediately terminate the call.
