BACKGROUND

The National Do Not Call List (DNCL) is an initiative of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to reduce the number of telemarketing calls made to Canadians.

The National DNCL initiative allows individuals who do not wish to receive unsolicited calls to have their Canadian numbers added to the National DNCL at no charge. In order to make contact individuals without consequence, telemarketers will have to subscribe to the National DNCL for a fee. Telemarketers will only be permitted to contact individuals whose numbers do not appear on the National DNCL.

On December 21, 2007, the CRTC awarded Bell Canada a contract to build and operate the National DNCL. The CRTC expects the National DNCL to be launched by September 30, 2008, however, telemarketers will have an additional 31 days from that date to update their call lists, after which complaints can be reported.

WHAT IS TELEMARKETING?

Telemarketing includes making unsolicited phone calls or sending unsolicited faxes to individuals via telecommunications facilities for the purpose of solicitation. Solicitation refers to the selling or promoting of a product or service, or the soliciting of money whether directly or indirectly.

EXEMPTIONS

Several types of telemarketing calls are exempt from the National DNCL including calls made by or on behalf of:

• Registered charities Only telecommunication made by, or on behalf of, a registered charity as defined in the Income Tax Act is exempt.
• Political parties
• Opinion polling firms
• General-circulation newspapers
  General-circulation newspapers are defined as a printed publication in sheet form that is intended for general circulation, published regularly at intervals of not longer than seven days, consisting in great part of news of current events of general and local interests, and is sold to the public and subscribers.
• Organizations that have an existing business relationship
  The CRTC noted that an existing business relationship exists between one customer and one legal entity and that an existing business relation exemption will only be extended to the broader corporate group, affiliates, or cooperative groups if the consumer has provided express consent to be contacted by way of telecommunication by such related organizations. For the purposes of the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules, an entity is affiliated with another entitle if one of them is controlled by the other or both are controlled by the same person.
• Organizations to business consumers
  The intent of the legislation is to prevent undue inconvenience or nuisance to residential consumers. The CRTC considered that business consumers do not experience the same inconvenience and nuisance as residential consumers and noted that business can still register their numbers on specific telemarketer’s do not call lists.

However, the exempt telemarketers will still have to comply with the new Telemarketing Rules and the existing Automatic Dialing-Announcing Device Rules and will have to keep their own do not call lists.

A non-exempt organization can still contact an individual registered on the National DNCL where the organization obtains consent from the individual.

VIOLATIONS

Where a telemarketer breaks the National DNCL Rules, an individual can file a complaint to the National DNCL operator, namely, Bell Canada, who will then forward it to a third party investigator. If the complaint is found to be valid, it will be sent to the CRTC, who can issue notices of violation, monetary penalties, or other compliance measures unless a legitimate defence is provided. Monetary penalties are up to $1,500 for individuals and up to $15,000 for corporations for each violation.

SUBSCRIPTION RATES

The following are the accepted National DNCL subscription rates:

SOURCES

CRTC Fact Sheet “New and revised Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules”

CRTC News Release “CRTC issues Request for Proposal for the investigation of telemarketing complains” February 15, 2008

Telecom Decision CRTC 2007-48

Telecom Decision CRTC 2008-6

Suzanna Winsborough
Business Succession and Family Succession Services
Tel: (905) 276-0434
E-mail: swinsborough@kmblaw.com

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