On December 21, 2007 the CRTC awarded a five-year contract to Bell Canada to operate the National DNCL. The National DNCL will be a nationwide registry that will allow you to reduce the number of unsolicited telemarketing calls you receive. Curre ently, each telemarketer is required to maintain its own "do not call list", which you must register on separately to reduce or avoid calls. With the National DNCL, you will only have to register your Canadian telephone number on one list.
The National DNCL operator will be responsible for registering numbers, providing telemarketers with up-to-date versions of the National DNCL, and receiving consumer complaints about telemarketing calls.
Consumers who registe r on the National DNCL can expect to receive a reduced number of unsolicited telemarketing calls. This fact sheet is intended to give you a clear understanding of the upcoming program.
Registration
What numbers can be registere d?
Consumers will be able to register any Canadian telephone number on the National DNCL, regardless of whether they use that number with a landline, a cellular telephone, or a fax machine.
How to sign up
To register or de-register on the National DNCL, you will have to call the toll-free number (yet to be determined) from the telephone number that you wish to register or de-register. The same service will be available to fax numbers, which can be registered by s ending a fax to a designated toll-free number.
Online registration will also be available. You will only be able to register a maximum of three numbers at a time on the National DNCL website.
NOTE: You will only be able to register the number to which you subscribe for the National DNCL service. If you are unable to register yourself, you will be able to grant another individual the authority to do so on your behalf.
Duration of registration
Your registration will expire three years after the effective registration date. After three years, you will automatically be de-registered from the National DNCL.
The National DNCL operator will not be required to contact you to inform you that your registration will expire. It will be your responsibility to re-register your telephone number after the three-year period. You may re-register at any time; the three-year expiry period will restart when you re-register.
If your telephone number changes during your registration time, you will have to register the new telephone number with the National DNCL. When you register your new telephone number, the three-year expiry period will re-start.
NOTE: The CRTC will grant a 31-day period to allow telemarketers time to update their telemarketing lists. As a result, you could continue to receive telemarketing calls until this time has passed.
Cost
There will be absolutely no cost to register on the National DNCL. The operational costs will be covered by subscription fees paid to the National DNCL operator by telemarketers.
What to expect
Telemarketers will not be allowed to cal l you, and as a result, you should receive fewer unsolicited calls. Calls made on behalf of organizations or made for certain purposes as listed below, are exempt from the National DNCL rules:
- registered charities;
- political parties;
- nomination contestants, leadership contestants or candidates of a political party;
- opinion polling firms or market research firms conducting surveys when the call does not involve the sale of a product or service;
- general circulation newspapers calling for the purpose of selling a subscription;
- to a consumer who has an existing business relationship with the organization; and
- to bus iness consumers.
Organizations that are making calls which are exempt from the National DNCL (except for organizations collecting information for a survey) are required to keep their own do not call lists. For a complete list of exemptions, please refer to Telecom Decision CRTC 2007-48.
Organizations who obtain your consent to be called may also call you, even though you may be regist ered on the National DNCL.
NOTE: If you do not want to receive calls from organizations making exempt calls, you can ask to be added to their list at the time of their telemarketing call or you can contact them directly to be registered on their own do-not-call lists.
Complaints
If you have registered for the National DNCL, and you still receive calls from organizations that are not exempt, then you will be able to file a complaint. The National DNC L operator will provide a toll-free number to call if you have a complaint. Be sure to have the following information on hand:
- your telephone number;
- name and/or number of the telemarketer;
- da te of the telemarketing call;
- nature of the complaint; and
- if it was a fax telecommunication, a copy of the fax is required.
The complaint must be filed within 14 days of receiving the telemark eting call. This will ensure timely investigations.
You will also be able to file your complaint online.
Investigation of complaints
Complaints will be investigated (investigator to be determined) to assess whe ther a violation of the National DNCL rules has occurred. If the findings show that a violation has occurred, the Commission may issue a notice of violation and impose monetary penalties for each violation of up to $1,500 for individuals and up to $15, 000 for corporations.
Timeline
The National DNCL is still in development. The framework, rules and regulations are now complete.
The CRTC expects the National DNCL to be launched by September 30, 2008.
