More Than 222 Million Phone Numbers Registered With FTC Do Not Call List
The FTC’s National Do Not Call Registry has more than 222 million active registrations, the agency said in a report to Congress released Thursday. The registry was launched in 2003 and continues to get bigger. The most recent numbers are…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
up 4.9 million registrations over the previous year, the FTC said. “Consumers continue to register their telephone numbers, verify registration of numbers, and submit complaints of suspected violations at a steadily high rate,” the report said. “The FTC continues to look for and make improvements to the system to better serve both consumers and telemarketers while maintaining the efficient management and accuracy of the Registry.” In FY 2015, 2,504 entities paid fees totaling $13.3 million for access to the registry, the FTC said. Companies pay $60 per area code per year to access the registry, with the maximum fee for accessing the entire registry an annual $16,482, the FTC said. Another 20,596 accessed the registry without paying a fee because they access five or fewer area codes or are a charity. Changes to technology pose the threat of more nuisance calls, the FTC said. VoIP calling “allows callers, including law-breakers, to make higher volumes of calls inexpensively from anywhere in the world,” the FTC said. “New technologies also allow illegal telemarketers to fake the caller ID information that accompanies their calls, which allows them to conceal their identity from consumers and law enforcement.” Telemarketers are also making increased use of automated dialing technology “to make very high volumes of illegal calls without significant expense,” the FTC said. The commission voted 4-0 to authorize the report, which also addresses the impact of the five-year re-registration requirement that was eliminated in 2007 and agency response to new technologies that are increasing illegal telemarketing calls.