The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to increase obligations on telemarketers by requiring them to keep additional records about their activities so that law enforcement can hold them accountable for when they fail to comply with the law.
The FTC seeks comment on proposed amendments to the TSR that would: (1) require telemarketers and sellers to maintain additional records of their telemarketing activities, (2) prohibit material misrepresentations and false or misleading statements in business to business (“B2B”) telemarketing transactions, and (3) add a new definition for the term “previous donor.” According to the Notice, these proposed amendments will be necessary to protect consumers and small businesses from abusive and/or deceptive telemarketing practices.
The letter encourages the FTC to adopt proposed changes to the Rule, including requiring telemarketers and sellers to keep the following types of information:
- A copy of each unique prerecorded message.
- Call detail records of telemarketing campaigns.
- Records that prove a seller has an established business relationship with a consumer.
- Records that prove a consumer is a previous donor to a particular charitable organization.
- Records of the service providers that a telemarketer uses to deliver outbound calls.
- Records of a seller or charitable organization’s entity-specific do-not-call registries.
- Records of the FTC’s Do-Not-Call registry that were used to ensure compliance with the Telemarketing Sales Rule.
