Advertising Law Blog

On November 1, 2006, the DMA will discontinue all mail and most web-based consumer registrations for Telephone Preference Service (TPS). Consumers will be redirected to the Federal Trade Commission's Do Not Call Registry instead. This was first reported in AdvertisingLawBlog on July 7, 2006.

The DMA's plan to phase out consumer registrations is as follows:

1) The DMA will continue to take web-based registrations for consumers located in the states of Maine, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming because the TPS list remains the official DNC list for those three states.

2) The DMA will continue to update the TPS file as follows: a) Removing disconnected numbers and updating area code splits and changes on the TPS file; b) Eliminating the names of consumers who have been on TPS for 5 years; and c) Adding new names of deceased individuals whose family/friends have registered them on DMA's Deceased Do-Not-Contact (DDNC) list.

This process will have the following effect on DMA members:

1) Since consumer names are kept on the TPS file for only 5 years, the DMA list will continue to shrink in size and after 5 years only contain residents of Maine, Pennsylvania and Wyoming, as well as names registered on DMA's DDNC list.

2) Because consumer names remain on TPS for 5 years, DMA members will be required to honor these consumers' requests not to be called by scrubbing their prospecting lists against the TPS file through December 2011.

3) The January 2007 quarterly update will be the last update DMA members will be required to purchase. Members must continue to scrub their prospecting list against this list for 5 years, at which point all registered consumer names will have dropped off.

4) Alternatively, members may elect to purchase quarterly updates for the next 5 years (until November 2011). Each quarterly update will shrink in size as names drop off, thereby providing members with a smaller suppress list.

5) Marketers who use DMA's Deceased-Do-Not-Contact (DDNC) list and/or who are required to use the state DNC lists for Maine, Pennsylvania, and/or Wyoming may either: a) Purchase an annual subscription to the state lists from the DMA and DDNC list; or b) Purchase the entire TPS file, which contains the state lists for Maine, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming, as well as the Deceased Do Not Contact information.