This week the FTC announced that its FY 2017 fees for accessing the national Do-Not-Call database will be mildly increased to $61 per area code, or $16,714 for the entire national file. Interestingly, the fee for accessing an additional area code for a half year will remain at just $30.
The FTC made the change per their obligations under the DNC Registry Fee Extension Act of 2007. By way of review, sellers must obtain a subscription account number (“SAN”) and purchase all area codes into which they will call, unless they have an exemption such as well-documented written consent or an established business relationship.
Sellers and their telemarketers may engage outside scrub/suppression vendors to perform the actual scrubs, once they have a SAN and have paid for their area codes. Non-telemarketing calls are not subject to the consumer DNC list, but use caution as “telemarketing” is defined broadly. The fee increase takes effect on October 1, 2016.