Do Not Call Registrations Permanent and Fees Telemarketers Pay to Access Registry Set

Telephone numbers placed on the National Do Not Call Registry will remain on it permanently due to the Do-Not-Call Improvement Act of 2007, which became law in February 2008. More than 157 million phone numbers are on the National Do Not Call Registry.

Under the Act, the Federal Trade Commission will continue to remove telephone numbers that have been disconnected and reassigned to other customers. Consumers can delete their telephone numbers from the registry at any time by calling 1-888-382-1222 (TTY 1-866-290-4236) – the call must be made from the telephone number they wish to delete.

The Do-Not-Call Fee Extension Act of 2007 also was enacted, setting the annual fees telemarketers will pay to access the registry in fiscal year 2009 at $54 for each area code of data accessed or $14,850 for access to every area code in the registry, whichever is less. Telemarketers may access the first 5 area codes of data at no charge, and certain exempt organizations will continue to access all data at no charge. For each fiscal year beginning after fiscal year 2009, the fees will be increased at the rate of change of the consumer price index, unless the change is less than 1 percent, in which case the fees will not be adjusted.