July 5, 2007 -- It's been an overwhelming success and touted as a model for Canada. In the months after the American Federal Trade Commission established its do not call registry in October 2003, 60 million people signed up, eager to prevent most telemarketers from contacting them at home.

By Sept. 30, 2006, that list had grown to 132,219,163 telephone numbers — landline and cellphone — according to the latest FTC annual report to Congress on the registry.

The program was designed to block about 80 per cent of telemarketing calls. Consumers register the numbers they want protected.

The concept is simple: if you do not want to receive calls from telemarketers, you fill out a form, call a toll-free number or register online.

Under the legislation, companies cannot call people who have signed up unless:

 

• The company has done business with them within the last 1½ years or fielded an inquiry or application from them within three months.

• The person being contacted gave them signed, written consent.

• The caller has a personal relationship with the person he or she is phoning.

• The company is among certain exempted groups such as charities, polling companies and political campaigners. These groups can ring numbers on the list unless they're asked not to call again.

Telemarketers must check the registry every 90 days and scrub names from their own lists. If they contact those numbers anyway, they can be fined up to $11,000 US per call or face jail terms.

The federal regulator said it received between 10,000 and 12,000 consumer complaints alleging violations of the list in the program's first 11 months. As of Sept. 30, 2006, the FTC had filed charges in 28 of the cases and had reached settlements in 21. Courts ordered fines of almost $16 million in those cases.

One of the cases the FTC began pursuing in 2006 involved John Raymond Salvator Bezeredi, a Vancouver-based telemarketer who targeted elderly Americans by trying to sell them non-existent bonds. They were told that after buying the bonds, they would be entered into monthly drawings that would likely lead to regular cash payments or substantial winnings. Bezeredi did business as Dominion Investments, Eurobond Fidelity Ltd. and Imperial Investments. On April 9, 2007, he was ordered to pay back $4.75 million to his victims.

Other companies have settled without going to court after the FTC said they broke the rules. Among them, AT&T Corp. shelled out $490,000 in fines in July 2004 and Primus Telecommunications Group Inc. agreed to pay $400,000 two months later.

 

The Canadian Registry

The success of the American registry renewed calls for a similar registry in Canada. The federal government passed legislation in November 2005 that cleared the way for a Canadian registry modelled on the American one. The legislation provides for fines of $1,500 per person and $15,000 per business for each infraction.

Canada's largest marketing association welcomed the legislation. The Canadian Marketing Association had been calling for clear rules on telemarketing for years. It has maintained a voluntary do not call list since 1988. It was set up to cut down not just on phone calls from telemarketers — but also on junk mail and faxes from marketers.

But it has serious limitations. It only applies to companies that are members of the Canadian Marketing Association. There's little the CMA can do to punish violators, except kick them out of the CMA.

"Without reasonable laws regulating organizations that use the telephone to market their goods and services, the industry risks losing its right to use this valuable marketing channel to acquire new customers," John Gustavson, president of the CMA said in a statement.

Gustavson notes that the telemarketing industry employs 270,000 Canadians and generates more than $16 billion in sales a year.

On July 3, 2007, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), established rules to govern the National Do Not Call List. To get your number on the list, you will have to call a toll-free number or register online. Your registration will last for three years. After that time, you will be dropped from the list. It's up to you to get your number back on. You won't be notified when the three years are up. Registration is free.

It's the same for the American registry. It turns three years old in 2008 and in the spring, the FTC will conduct a consumer education campaign to tell people how to get their numbers back on the list.

The CRTC says the registry will reduce the number of unwanted calls you receive. But it may not happen right away. Telemarketers will be allowed 31 days to update their telemarketing lists.

And there are exemptions to the legislation. They include:

 

• Registered charities (calls made by them or on their behalf).

• Political parties.

• Calls made for the purpose of public opinion surveys.

• Newspapers of general circulation (for subscription solicitation).

• Businesses with whom you have an existing business relationship (e.g.; businesses from which you have purchased goods or services within last 18 months).

If you don't want to receive calls from organizations exempted from the national list, you will have to contact them to tell them to take you off their list. You can also tell them should they contact you.

If you want to file a complaint, you'll have to do it within 14 days of receiving a call.

The system should be up and running before the end of 2007. The CRTC is still going through the process of finding an operator to manage the registry.