The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Tuesday proposed raising the cost to telemarketers for accessing the Federal Do Not Call Registry.

 

According to a press release from the FTC, the proposal would increase “the current annual rate of $56 per area code to $62 per area code. This proposed rulemaking would increase the cost for nationwide access from $15,400 to $17,050.”   

 

A copy of the proposal, which includes the FTC’s rationale for the rate increase, is available here. The public can comment on the proposal until June 1, 2006.

 

The proposal includes background on the Do Not Call list, which was created December 18, 2002. The purpose of the list is to permit “consumers to register, via either a toll-free telephone number or the Internet, their preference not to receive certain telemarketing calls,” the FTC stated.

 

The FTC notes that “Telemarketers must periodically access the registry to remove from their telemarketing lists the telephone numbers of those consumers who have registered.”

 

Fees for accessing the Do Not Call list were established July 29, 2003, “based on the FTC’s best estimate of the number of entities that would be required to pay for access to the National Registry.”

The fees were also based on the need to raise $18.1 million during fiscal year 2003 to cover the costs of implementing and enforcing the list.

 

Fees were initially established at $25 for each area code, with the first five area codes provided for free. This was capped at $7,375 “for entities accessing 300 area codes of data or more.”

 

Since then, the fees have increased each year, as shown in below: