New Standards for Telemarketers and Researchers

The newly remade 2017 ACMA Telemarketing and Research Standard has recently come into effect.

The Standard outlines the minimum contact they can expect from telemarketing and research organisations and reduce compliance and administrative costs to the industry.

Updated from the 2007 Standard, the changes effect the rules around researchers and telemarketers making calls, specifically;

• When calls can be made,

• What information must be included in calls,

• When calls must be terminated, and

• The use of calling line identification (CLI).

Consent

If you or your business are calling outside the prescribed allowable times, you must have the express consent of the consumer. Express consent is when a consumer clearly indicates that they are willing to take telemarketing calls and provides their number for that specific purpose.

What needs to be included

For telemarketers, scripts need to change to provide the name of the caller’s employer (a registered business) right off the top of the call. Further, contact details are to be provided upon request.

Researchers must similarly tell recipients where they are calling from, unless it compromises the research. In this case, the name of the telemarketing company must be provided prior to the call’s end. Disclosure of the name of the researcher who made the call is no longer required.

Under the new standard, you no longer have to provide the following information:

• The employee or staff identifier of the individual making the call (their given name must still be provided)

• Details of where the person calling obtained the Australian number called

• The name of the person the call was intended for

• The name and contact details of any entity that disclosed to the caller the Australian number called and or/the name of person the call was intended for.

Complete details of these changes can be found on the ACMA website here.