Issue
Will telemarketers be required to provide additional disclosures during a sales call than already required under the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) and Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)?

Importance
Profitability of the telemarketing industry is highly dependent on efficiency and amount of time spent on the phone with consumers. Additional and unnecessary disclosures during a call increases the amount of time spent per call and reduces the number of people that can be reached during a given period of time. The addition of too many disclosures would lead to the equivalent of a Miranda-style warning.

ATA Position
ATA believes the current disclosures required by the TSR and TCPA are adequate for telemarketers to conduct business effectively while keeping consumers informed of their rights.

Background
The TSR differentiates between the disclosures required when placing a call to consumers to sell a good or service and calls designed to welcome customers or to obtain customer satisfaction. All outbound telemarketing sales calls must promptly disclose, in a clear and conspicuous manner, the identity of the seller, that the purpose of the call is to sell goods/services, the nature of the goods/services being offered and, in the case of a prize promotion, that no purchase or payment is necessary to participate or win.

Calls initiated strictly to welcome new customers or to ascertain customer satisfaction do not require these four oral disclosures. Calls made by for-profit companies on behalf of non-profit entities need only disclose the name of the nonprofit organization on whose behalf they are calling, the nature of the offered goods/services, and the request for a donation.

The TCPA does not make such distinctions regarding disclosures as the TSR does. It requires that operators, during the introductory portion of all "live operator" outbound telemarketing calls, must provide the name of the individual making the call, the name of the business, individual or other entity on whose behalf the call is being made, and a telephone number or address at which the person or entity may be contacted.

The disclosure issue was discussed during the Telemarketing Sales Rule Forum held at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) July 27-28, 2000. During this round table discussion, some consumer advocacy groups expressed a view to increase in the number of disclosures at the beginning of a telemarketing sales call. Industry responded with its satisfaction with the current TSR requirements. It expressed how the addition of too many disclosures would lead to the equivalent of a Miranda-style warning whereby rapport between the consumer and marketer would be lost and the consumer could become confused to the point of forgetting the purpose of the call. Any changes to the TSR stemming from the FTC review are expected to be announced by the end of 2001.

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