Telephone Consumer Protection Act

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), a federal law, imposes restrictions on the use of automatic telephone dialing systems (also called autodialers), artificial or prerecorded voice messages, and fax machines to send unsolicited advertisements. The FCC adopted rules and regulations, effective December 20, 1992, implementing the TCPA. Different rules and regulations apply to calls placed to homes and calls placed to businesses. The rules do not apply to messages sent via email or the Internet. The rules include a prohibition against calling a consumer at home who has asked not to be called again. (As noted earlier, there is some overlap between the "do not call" provisions of the FCC's rules and the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule.)

Terms you should know to protect your rights

An autodialer is equipment that stores and dials numbers in sequential order or at random.
You have an established business relationship with a person or entity if you have made an inquiry, application, purchase or transaction regarding products or services offered by that party. You may end this relationship by telling the company that you do not want them to place any more solicitation calls to your home.
A telephone solicitation is a telephone call or message made for the purpose of encouraging the purchase or rental of, or investment in, property, goods or services. The term does not include a call or message made with your prior permission; a call from a company with which you have an established business relationship; or a call by or on behalf of a tax-exempt nonprofit organization.

Your Rights

During a "live" call placed to your home, a telemarketer must tell you:

The name of the individual caller;
The name of the company on whose behalf the call is being made; and
A telephone number or address at which the company can be contacted.

A telemarketer cannot:

Call again once you've asked them not to;
Call you before 8:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m.

The FCC's Do-Not-Call Rules require companies to keep a record of your request not to receive future sales calls for ten years.

To stop future "live" calls to your home :

Tell the caller that you do not want to receive any more solicitation calls from them and to add you to their do-not-call list. This request should stop all calls from the caller for ten years. It should also stop calls from affiliated entities where, due to the identification of the caller and the product being advertised, you would reasonably expect that the request applies to affiliated entities.
Each time you receive a call from a different company whose calls you do not wish to receive you must request that they don't call you again.

Exceptions to the Do-Not-Call Rule Requirements

Tax-exempt nonprofit organizations are not required to keep do-not-call lists.
The do-not-call rules do not apply to calls placed to your business telephone number. However, your state may have laws that apply to business telephone numbers.

Rules that Apply to Computerized Calls

Artificial (computerized) or prerecorded voice calls cannot be placed to your home, except for the following:

Emergency calls;
When you have given prior consent to such calls;
Non-commercial calls (for example, calls from charities, polling organizations, political or government agencies);
Calls by or on behalf of tax-exempt nonprofit organizations;
Calls which don't have unsolicited advertisements; and
Calls from companies with which you have an established business relationship.

(Prerecorded calls to business numbers are not prohibited but two or more lines of multi-line businesses cannot be tied up at the same time.)

Information that must be provided for those computerized or prerecorded calls that are not prohibited:

The company using the autodialer must clearly state its identity at the beginning of the message, and its telephone number or address during or after the message.
The telephone number provided cannot be the number of the autodialer that placed the call, and cannot be a 900 number or any other number where you'd have to pay a charge higher than local or long distance telephone charges.

Rules that apply to autodialed, artificial or prerecorded voice calls placed to emergency, cellular telephone and pager numbers

The FCC's rules prohibit the use of autodialers, artificial or prerecorded voice messages to call numbers assigned to:

Any emergency telephone line, including any 911 line and any emergency line of a hospital, medical physician or service office, health care facility, poison control center, or fire protection or law enforcement agency;
The telephone line of any guest or patient room of a hospital, health care facility, elderly home or similar establishment;
Any telephone number assigned to a paging service, cellular telephone service or other radio common carrier services; or
Services for which you — as the person being called — would be charged for the call.

These prohibitions do not apply in the following situations:

Emergency calls;
When you have given prior consent to such calls; or
Prerecorded messages sent by cellular service providers to their subscribers — for example, to "roamers" leaving the service area — if subscribers are not charged for the call.

Rules that Apply to Unsolicited Faxes

Rules applying to unsolicited fax advertisements sent to your home and business fax machines:

Advertisements for any goods or services cannot be sent to your fax machine without your prior express permission or invitation.
Permission to send unsolicited faxes is presumed to exist if you have an established business relationship with whomever is sending the message.
You can end this relationship by telling the company that you do not want to receive any more faxes from them.

Information that must be placed either on the first page or on each page of a fax:

The date and time the transmission is sent;
The identity of the business, other entity, or individual sending the message; and
The telephone number of the sender or of the sending fax machine. The telephone number provided may not be a 900 number or any other number for which charges exceed local or long distance telephone charges.