Skip to main content icon/video/no-internet
icon backReturn to Entries

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Regulations

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulates many of the telecommunications survey and marketing researchers use through the rules under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which directed the FCC to balance the fair practices of tele-marketers with consumer privacy concerns.

Although some TCPA provisions apply only to commercial and sales-related communications—for example, the Junk Fax Prevention Act (JFPA), the National Do Not Call Registry, and restrictions on call abandonment and time of day—they still impact researchers. However, the TCPA restrictions on “war dialing,” artificial or prerecorded messages, and cellular phone calling apply to all callers, including survey researchers.

Junk Fax Prevention Act (JFPA)

The federal JFPA amends earlier fax regulations in the TCPA to reduce the amount of unsolicited facsimile advertisements sent to businesses and residences. The law does not apply to researchers faxing surveys, collecting data via fax, or recruiting respondents via fax. The FCC defines unsolicited fax advertisements as “any material advertising the commercial availability or quality of any property, goods, or services which is transmitted to any person without the person's prior express invitation or permission, in writing or otherwise.” Of course, survey researchers that fax unsolicited advertisements seeking to sell their services are bound by the JFPA.

However, individuals and businesses may send unsolicited fax advertisements to other business or residential subscribers where an established business relationship is present; this relationship is denned as “a prior or existing relationship formed by a voluntary two-way communication between a person or entity and a business or residential subscriber with or without an exchange of consideration, on the basis of an inquiry, application, purchase or transaction by the business or residential subscriber regarding products or services offered by such person or entity, which relationship has not been previously terminated by either party.” Alternatively, fax advertisements can be sent if the recipient gives prior express consent.

All fax advertisement senders must provide a clear and conspicuous opt-out notice on the first page of the ad, and a telephone number, fax number, and a cost-free mechanism (including a toll-free telephone number, local number for local recipients, toll-free fax number, Web site address, or email address) to opt out of faxes. These numbers and cost-free mechanism must permit consumers to make opt-out requests 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Although survey research is outside the scope of the JFPA, professional organizations generally recommend that all researchers adopt fax policies addressing respondent opt-out requests to promote respondent cooperation.

Do-Not-Call (DNC) Registry

The FCC TCPA rules first required that companies maintain their own internal do-not-call registries; subsequently, the TCPA was amended to create a federal DNC registry operated by the Federal Trade Commission in conjunction with the FCC. Telemark-eters and sellers are required to search the registry at least once every 31 days and drop from their call lists the phone numbers of consumers who have registered.

Calls placed to registered lines are allowed with prior written consent or under established business relationship rules similar to those of the JFPA.

The DNC registry does not apply to survey research calls; however, a researcher that accesses the DNC registry, for whatever reason, becomes legally bound by it—that is, responsible for scrubbing their calling lists of registrants, just like a telemarketer.

...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles

Read next

More like this

Sage Recommends

We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.

close

Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches

close
close
close Signed In to profile You are signed in as:
close
Logged in Institution Institution