DMA STATEMENT: TELEMARKETERS REQUIRED TO TRANSMIT CALLER-ID INFORMATION BEGINNING TODAY
NEW YORK, January 29, 2004 The Direct Marketing Association (The DMA) today reminded American businesses and consumers that outbound telemarketing calls will, from now on, be required to include caller identification information. Under new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations going into effect today, businesses that make commercial telemarketing calls as well as the service providers that make calls on their behalf are required to transmit caller identification information to consumers.
The caller identification information that is displayed must include the name of either the company trying to make a sale or the company making a sales call on behalf of another company. The display must also include a phone number than consumers can call during regular business hours to request that the company not call them in the future.
"The DMA has supported transmitting caller identification information because it enhances two-way communication between people making and receiving phone calls," said Patricia Faley Kachura, vice president, ethics & consumer affairs, The DMA. "Whether to buy a product or service, provide feedback, or to ask not to be called again, caller-ID is good for businesses and good for consumers."
"In fact, this has been a requirement of The DMA for some time now that, when available, our members must transmit caller-ID information," explained Kachura. "While the law requires the transmission of caller-ID only for commercial calls, DMA members including nonprofits and other groups that are exempt from FTC jurisdiction are required under DMA guidelines to transmit this information. We encourage the rest of the marketplace to follow suit its the right thing to do."
However, The DMA cautioned that there remain certain mechanical barriers standing in the way of universal marketplace adoption of the caller identification requirement.
For example, while the vast majority of telemarketers are making good-faith efforts to transmit the information, on the back end, several local exchange carriers are not yet equipped to transmit and/or display parts of, or all of, the information to the recipients of the calls. Consequently, the telemarketing industry, federal government, and telecommunications providers continue to work cooperatively to ensure that telemarketer caller-identification information can be transmitted universally to telephone subscribers across the country.
About The DMA
The DMA is the leading trade association for businesses interested in interactive and database marketing, with nearly 4,700 member companies from the United States and 53 other nations. Founded in 1917, its members include direct marketers from every business segment as well as the nonprofit and electronic marketing sectors. Included are catalogers, Internet retailers and service providers, financial services providers, book and magazine publishers, book and music clubs, retail stores, industrial manufacturers and a host of other vertical segments, including the service industries that support them. According to a
DMA-commissioned economic-impact study, direct and interactive marketing sales in the United States are projected to have surpassed $1.7 trillion in 2003, including $133 billion in catalog sales and $41 billion in sales generated by the Internet. The DMA's Web site is www.the-dma.org, and its consumer Web site is www.shopthenet.org.
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