Commission Approves Federal Register Notice Announcing Extension of Public Comment Period Related to Prerecorded Telemarketing Until December 18, 2006

Commission approval of Federal Register notice: The FTC has approved the publication of a Federal Register notice announcing the extension of the public comment period on two proposed amendments to the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR). The two proposals were announced in a previous Federal Register notice on October 4, 2006. One proposal would explicitly prohibit using prerecorded messages in telemarketing calls answered by a consumer (unless the consumer has given prior written consent to receive such prerecorded message calls). The other proposal would change the method of calculating the maximum allowable rate of call abandonment from a “per day per calling campaign” standard to a “per thirty days per calling campaign” standard. The notice announced today extends the comment period by 40 days. The public comment period will now expire on Monday, December 18, 2006.

The Commission vote approving issuance of the Federal Register notice was 5-0. A copy of the notice can be found on the FTC’s Web site as a link to this press release. (FTC File No.R41001; the staff contact is Craig Tregillus, Bureau of Consumer Protection, 202-326-2970; see press release dated October 3, 2006.)

Copies of the documents mentioned in this release are available from the FTC’s Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and from the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580. Call toll-free: 1-877-FTC-HELP.