On Jun. 3, FTC proposed rulemaking on telemarketer sales records.
FTC issued proposal to amend Telemarketing sales rule (TSR) (16 CFR 310) to require telemarketers and sellers to maintain additional records of telemarketing transactions.
Also prohibited material misrepresentations and misleading statements in business to business (B2B) telemarketing transactions, added new definition to previous donor.
Proposed Amendments
Sellers/telemarketers must retain additional records of their telemarketing activities.
Required categories included a copy of each unique prerecorded message, call detail records of telemarketing campaigns, relationship records, and previous donor records.
As well as records of the service providers used to deliver outbound calls, records of entity-specific do-not-call registers, and records of the commission's DNC registry.
B2B telemarketing transitions are prohibited from making material misrepresentations in the sale of goods/services and false statements to induce a person to pay for goods.
Provided new previous donor definition to clarify that telemarketers are prohibited from using prerecorded messages to solicit charitable contributions from consumers.
Unless the consumers donated to that non-profit organization within the last 2 years.
Consultation
Comments on proposed rulemaking must be submitted on or before Aug. 2, 2022.
Mar. 2024 FTC Final Rule Adoption
On Mar. 7, 2024, FTC issued final rule extending telemarketing fraud protections to businesses and updating rule’s recordkeeping requirements in light of developments.
Expand prohibitions against misrepresentations to business-to-business telemarketing.
In addition, final rule made several modifications to the recordkeeping amendments.
Primary substantive modifications relate to new recordkeeping requirements for call detail records, corresponding safe harbor, records of consent, records of compliance.
Provision allowing sellers and telemarketers to allocate responsibility for recordkeeping
In addition, the FTC's final rule added a new definition for the term previous donor.
The amendments are effective 30 days after date of publication in the federal register.
Compliance not required until 180 days after date of publication in federal register.
Apr. 2024 FTC Federal Register
On Apr. 16, 2024, FTC published final rule in federal register, effective May 16, 2024.
Note, compliance with 16 CFR 310.5(a)(2) re prize recipients required Oct. 15, 2024.
