New Corporate Telephone Preference Regulations
to start this summer
As from Friday 25th June 2004, it
will be an offence punishable by a £5,000 fine to make an
unsolicited telemarketing call to any business from 28 days after
it has written to the Telephone Preference Service and registered
its telephone numbers.
Although this system has been
in place for domestic consumers, sole traders and some partnerships
for some time, the extension of the list to include all partnerships
and limited companies will now affect every organisation involved
in telemarketing and not just those selling to the domestic market.
This effectively means:
| - |
You will no longer be able
to make unsolicited sales & marketing calls to just
any number you see on a letterhead, in the yellow pages
or a web site for example, without first checking that it
has not opted-out. |
| - |
You will no longer be able to make
unsolicited calls to numbers held in your own databases,
contact management systems etc without first checking that
they have not opted-out. |
Please note:
These regulations only relate to unsolicited calls. If you are
calling people on your database to update them about products/services
that are similar to the ones they originally enquired about/ purchased
from you, they do not need to be checked against the TPS register.
The Facts
| 1. |
The Telephone
Preference Service (TPS) is an opt-out register for subscribers
who do not want to receive unsolicited direct marketing
by phone. The TPS was originally introduced for private
subscribers and has operated on a statutory basis since
1999. The amended regulations will allow all business types
to join the register. Working experience of the current
scheme shows that registration is a very effective way of
preventing cold calls to phone subscribers who do not want
them. |
| 2. |
The move comes in response
to concerns expressed by small businesses that they do not
have the resources to cope with high volumes of cold calls.
Despite industry experts expressing grave concern with this
legislation, on 2nd April 2004, the Communications Minister
Stephen Timms announced the corporate Telephone Preference
Service (TPS) will come into force on 25th June 2004. |
| 3. |
Registration will be free
for corporate subscribers, as it is for individuals. However,
corporate subscribers will be required to register in writing
in order to safeguard against bogus or inappropriate registrations.
|
| 4. |
The TPS (and the parallel
Fax Preference Service or FPS) are currently run by the
Direct Marketing Association under supervision by OFCOM.
The contracts are subject to competitive tender every five
years. |
| 5. |
For more information on this visit http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk |
Your Responsibilities
Direct marketers from sole traders
to PLC’s are under a legal requirement to check and comply
with TPS registration. Failure to do so can result in enforcement
action by the information commissioner with fines of up to £5,000.
It is ultimately the responsibility
of the company making cold calls for marketing purposes and not
the reseller/list broker to ensure it is TPS compliant.
Cost of Compliance
There are currently 3.5 million
consumer numbers on the register. There are several different
options open to you to make sure you comply with the new legislation.
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Purchase the complete TPS
database (updated monthly) for an annual licence of between
£750 (for up to 1% of all dialing codes) and £7,500
(for the complete list). Cleanse each and every list you
intend to use on a month-to-month basis. |
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When you want to undertake a campaign,
submit your list to a list-cleaning cleaning agency (for
example DataSearch) – costs on application. |
| - |
Use a carrier for outbound calls that
have in-built TPS Call Barring facilities that will automatically
suppress calls to TPS registered numbers - 24 hours a day,
365 days a year. Hassle free – costs negligible. |
| - |
If you purchase
lists for telemarketing activity, check they have been cleaned
against the TPS register. |
