TMCnews Featured Article

Calling people to sell them products and services can lead to new sales and commissions for organizations and inside sales staffers, but it can also result in legal challenges and fines. That’s why it’s important to understand the rules when it comes to the Do Not Call Registry, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and other state and federal legislation addressing telemarketing.

In North Carolina alone last year, organizations paid $200 million to consumers who had complained to the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division about such issues as telemarketing fraud and unwanted sales calls. According to a piece this month by North Carolina News Network, the division received 21,305 consumer complaints on this front in 2014, a significant increase from the 19,865 filings it got the year prior. Most common complaints, which topped 5,254 last year, involved alleged Do Not Call violations, according to the piece.

Such complaints are becoming a growing problem for consumers, and a more expensive problem for telemarketers.

Litigation related to the TCPA has soared in recent years. And damages can add up quickly given that violations can result in fines of up to $1,500 per call or text.

To get a sense of what we’re talking about, consider that a pizza chain in 2013 shelled out more than $16 million in damages to settle a nationwide class action lawsuit alleging it unlawfully advertised its pizzas by sending consumers unwanted SMS text messages. But the pizza shop may have gotten out of its legal battle cheaply, considering a vehicle maintenance brand recently paid $47 million and a major financial firm and three collections agencies paid $75.5 million restitution for TCPA violations.

Not only are violation settlements mounting, but rules are becoming more confining as well. For example, companies that use auto-dialers need to know whether a phone number is a landline or associated with a mobile device because if it is a mobile number, a company needs to verify it has prior consent to communicate using automated technology and that the person who gave consent still owns the number. On a separate front, there are also legal challenges brewing over whether a voicemail delivery system that sends messages direct to voicemail is prohibited under the TCPA.