The Do Not Call Registry: Rules for Businesses

The National Do Not Call Registry, run by the FTC since 2003, lets consumers opt their numbers out of telemarketing. For businesses the rule is blunt: telemarketing calls to registered numbers are prohibited unless an exception applies, and penalties run to tens of thousands of dollars per call. Over 240 million numbers are registered, so any consumer-facing call list is full of them by default.

What counts as telemarketing, and what does not

The registry restricts sales solicitation to consumers. It does not restrict: informational calls (appointment reminders, service notifications, deliveries), calls the consumer explicitly requested, survey and political calls (though other laws apply), or, importantly, business-to-business calls, the registry protects personal numbers in their consumer capacity, and B2B telemarketing sits largely outside it. The gray zone is sole proprietors and cell phones that are both personal and business; prudent practice treats ambiguous numbers as consumer numbers.

The exceptions businesses actually use

• Established business relationship (EBR): you may call a registered consumer for 18 months after their last purchase, delivery, or payment, and for 3 months after an inquiry. But, critical asymmetry, if they ask you not to call, that request beats the EBR permanently.
• Prior written permission: explicit signed consent to be called overrides registration until revoked.
• Nonprofit callers: charities calling on their own behalf are outside FTC registry rules (telefunders calling for them face partial rules).

The operational obligations

Businesses that telemarket must access the registry and scrub call lists at least every 31 days, keeping numbers current against new registrations. Separately, and this is the part small businesses miss, every business must maintain an internal do-not-call list: when anyone says "stop calling me," that request must be recorded and honored across the company, indefinitely (FTC rules treat internal requests as effectively permanent), regardless of registry status, EBR, or anything else. Most real-world DNC liability is internal-list failure: the note that never made it from the rep's memory into the system.

How this interacts with the TCPA

The registry and the TCPA are separate regimes that overlap: the registry governs whether you may solicit this number at all; the TCPA governs the technology and consent for how you contact it. A call can be registry-legal (EBR exists) yet TCPA-illegal (prerecorded voice without written consent), or vice versa. Compliance programs check both gates, in that order, before any campaign dials.