The Rules of Telemarketing

Telemarketing refers to the use of telecommunications facilities to make solicitation (permission) of the selling or promoting of a product or service, or the soliciting of money or money's worth, whether directly or indirectly and whether on behalf of another party.

These rules apply to all unsolicited calls for the purpose of solicitation. They apply to business-to-business telephone solicitation and calls from businesses to existing customers.
These rules do not extend to calls where there is no attempt to advertise a product, offer a service; for example, calls for emergency purposes, calls to collect overdue accounts, calls for market or survey research, and calls to schedule appointments.

Telephone Calls:

1. Callers must identify the person or organization they represent.
2. Callers must provide the telephone number, name and address of a responsible person the called party can write to, upon request.
3. Callers must display the originating calling number or an alternate number where the caller can be reached.
4. There are no calling hour restrictions on live voice calls.
5. Sequential dialing is not permitted.
6. Names and numbers of called parties must be removed within 30 days of the called party’s request.
7. Calls are not permitted to emergency line or healthcare facilities.
8. DO NOT CALL lists are to be maintained by the calling party and remain active for three years.
9. Random dialing and calls to non-published numbers are allowed.

Faxes:

1. Calling hours are restricted to weekdays between 9AM and 9:30PM and weekends between 10AM and 6PM. Restrictions refer to the time zone of the called party.
2. Must identify the person or organization on behalf of whom the fax/call is made, including the telephone number, fax number and name and address of a responsible person to whom the called party can write. This rule also applies to organizations sending unsolicited fax calls on behalf of another organization.
3. Must display the originating calling number or an alternate number where the call originator can be reached.
4. Names and numbers must be removed within 7 days of the called party’s request.
5. Sequential dialing is not permitted.
6. DO NOT CALL lists are to be maintained by the calling party and remain active for three years.
7. Fax calls are not permitted to emergency line or healthcare facilities.

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