The Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) regulates telemarketing, which is defined as “a plan, program, or campaign . . . to induce the purchase of goods or services or a charitable contribution.”
Among other things, the TSR:
• prohibits calling consumers on the National Do Not Call Registry
• requires disclosures of specific information
• prohibits misrepresentations
• limits when telemarketers may call consumers
• requires transmission of Caller ID information
• prohibits abandoned outbound calls (“Abandoned calls often result from the telemarketers’ use of predictive dialers … An outbound telephone call is ‘abandoned’” if a sales representative isn’t connected to the call “within two seconds of the person’s completed greeting.”), subject to a safe harbor
• prohibits unauthorized billing
• sets payment restrictions for the sale of certain goods and services
• requires that specific business records be kept for two years
• prohibits making outbound telemarketing calls outside the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 p.m.
• prohibits the use of prerecorded messages unless the customers has given written consent
