Do-Not-Call, Unless in Canada

Canada's Telemarketing Do-Not-Call List Not Enforced Enough, Critics Say

Pat Martin, an NDP critic, says that the CanadianRadio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) isn't protectingCanadian consumers against the telemarketing companies that ignore thecountry's do-not-call list. The CRTC receives thousands of complains per monthsfrom angry people who have been called by telemarketing services, despitelisting their number long ago with the DNC list. Only about 12 companies havebeen fined so far, and they were small telemarketing companies with fewemployees. Two of those companies have paid at least part of their fines, whichstretch from a high of $10,000 to a low of $4,000.

Since the Canadian do-not-call list was started in Septemberof 2008, over 8 million phone numbers have been registered. This February, theCRTC had 15,000 complaints with most from people who had registered and stillreceived telemarketing calls. There are currently 89 active cases of violations under investigation,just a fraction of the cases called in. CRTC officials had once claimed thatthey had 700 cases under investigation, and later clarified that the number wasthe total of investigations launched since they began cracking down on b2b telemarketing services ignoring the federal register.

Critics of the CRTC and their process for investigating andfining companies want the process to be more transparent, more effective and totarget more violating firms. Right now, a telemarketer found in violation whopays the find levied by the CRTC will avoid having their company name publiclyrevealed. And if the company fights the fine with claims that they're notresponsible for some reason or another, the entire process is done in private.After that process, if the company is found to be ultimately responsible forthe violation and the fine, then the name is made public along with the amountof the fine. So companies that choose to quietly pay what's owed face no otherpenalties, and aren’t even publicly named, and critics like Martin want to seethat changed.

She says that she can't understand the government'sunwillingness to enforce the list, which so many Canadians embraced. And thatthey were dropping the political ball by not doing so, as a nation that feelsharassed by telemarketers would most likely also embrace anyone willing tofight the violating companies.

The senior manager of the telemarketing regulation for theCRTC, Nancy Webster Cole, says that they're doing everything they can and thatthe complaints are like an avalanche that's hard to sort through. She saysthey're investigating as many as possible and trying to focus on the ones thatare repeat violators and receive the largest numbers of complains over a shorttime period. She also points out that even though the number of investigationsmay seem small, one investigation may actually be an umbrella for thousands of complaintson the same telemarketing organization.

Cole points out that to start a proper investigation, theytry to gather every complain they've received on that company to have anappropriate body of evidence before sending out the 191 warning letter, whichshe also says is getting good results.