On March 7, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced amendments to its Telemarketing Sales Rule (“TSR”) to apply certain of its provisions to business-to-business telemarketing calls, and to broaden its recordkeeping requirements. The FTC also announced a notice of proposed rulemaking (“NPRM”) that would further extend the TSR to cover inbound telemarketing calls involving technical support services.
The TSR prohibits deceptive or abusive telemarketing practices, including making certain material misrepresentations to induce a consumer to purchase a product or service. It also imposes certain disclosure and record-retention requirements on sellers and telemarketers. Previously, these requirements and restrictions did not apply to business-to-business calls with a narrow exception for calls that involved “selling office and cleaning supplies.”
Under the amended rule, certain provisions of the TSR will now apply to business-to-business telemarketing calls. Specifically, the amended rule provides that sellers and telemarketers making business-to-business telemarketing calls will be prohibited from making “(1) several types of material misrepresentations in the sale of goods or services; and (2) false or misleading statements to induce a person to pay for goods or services or to induce a charitable contribution.”
Additionally, the amended rule expands recordkeeping requirements under the TSR, including by requiring that telemarketers or sellers retain certain information relating to call detail records, the seller’s relationship with the company, and compliance with Do Not Call Registry restrictions.
Although most aspects of the amended rule will become effective 30 days after publication in the Federal Register (which has not yet occurred), the new requirement to retain call detail records will become effective 180 days after publication.
The NPRM proposes to apply the TSR’s provisions to inbound calls placed by consumers to telemarketers that involve technical support services. In doing so, it proposes to add technical support services “to the categories of calls excluded from the TSR’s exemptions for inbound calls ‘in response to an advertisement through any medium’ and inbound calls in response to ‘a direct mail solicitation,’ including email.” According to the NPRM, the proposed rule would address tech support scams that use advertisements to induce victims to call for assistance with digital products or services, then “dupe [them] into purchasing subscription tech support services or software that they do not need.”
Comments on the NPRM will be due 60 days after its publication in the Federal Register.