Source: Chronicle Herald

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission is asking consumers and telemarketers for their views on how to reduce unwanted calls and is taking a close look at the rules for automated calls.

The CRTC is also asking for comment on a proposal by the Canadian Marketing Association to relax the rules restricting automatic calls for telemarketing.

The Canadian Marketing Association has proposed eliminating this restriction where an organization already has a business relationship with the party being called and has not made a request to be on the organization’s internal do-not-call list, the CRTC said Wednesday.

“The current rules specify that consumers must provide express consent before calls using ADADs (automatic dialing-announcing devices) can be made to them,” the CRTC said in a news release.

The change proposed by the Canadian Marketing Association would also mean that such calls would be allowed even if consumers have registered their numbers on the national do-not-call list, the CRTC noted.

The CRTC oversees the national do-not-call list, which protects consumers from unwanted sales calls.

For its part, the Canadian Marketing Association calls the current restriction on automatic dialing-announcing devices “unduly broad.” It notes that technology has changed since rules were put in place in 1994, when the devices were capable only of one-way delivery of messages.

“As an example, these features now enable consumers to press a button on their touch-tone pad to immediately connect to a live agent, have the ADAD call returned at another more convenient time, pause or repeat a message,” the association said in a letter to the CRTC dated December 2011.

The call can also be personalized by including specific customer information such as names, the association added.

© Chronicle Herald