Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.
National Do Not Call Registry: Overview
Consumers can register their numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry if they wish to blacklist their numbers for telemarketers. By registering their number for free, consumers tell telemarketers that they do not want to be contacted with sales calls.
Some calls are allowed even if consumers have registered their numbers. This includes political calls, charitable calls, debt collection calls, informational calls, and surveys.
Consumers can register for the National Do Not Call Registry at donotcall.gov or by calling 1-888-382-1222. Registration with the federal list does not expire. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will only remove a number from the registry if it is disconnected or if a consumer specifically requests the removal.
TCPA and the National Do Not Call Registry
Although the registry was established to prevent annoying telemarketing calls, some consumers may still get robocalls. Robocalls, which use a pre-recorded message instead of a live person, used for telemarketing purposes are restricted by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
TCPA was established in 1991 in order to protect consumers from harassing telemarketing calls. In 2003, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) revised TCPA rules to create the National Do Not Call Registry in coordination with the FTC. The registry went into effect on Oct. 1, 2003.
If consumers have registered their number with the National Do Not Call Registry and still receive telemarketing calls from companies that don’t have their written permission to call, the callers may be violating TCPA.
Although TCPA and the National Do Not Call Registry do their best to curb annoying telemarketing calls, there are still violations every day. Repeated telemarketing calls can be a result of scammers, making it hard to track and difficult to take legal action.
TCPA Lawsuits and Settlements
There have been numerous class action lawsuits filed against companies accused of contacting consumers on the National Do Not Call Registry.
In 2017, consumers filed a TCPA class action lawsuit against Sprint, claiming that the cellular provider called consumers on the DO Not Call Registry using an auto-dialing system. These calls allegedly caused injury “because they were frustrating, obnoxious, annoying, were a nuisance and disturbed the solitude of plaintiff and the Class.”
Some of these lawsuits have resulted in class action settlements worth millions of dollars. In 2018, NRG Residential Solar Solutions agreed to pay $7 million to resolve class action allegations that they called people on the registry using an autodialing machine and pre-recorded voice. In 2017, Dish Network agreed to settle claims – resulting in estimated payments of over $1,000 per customer.
Often, legal claims regarding Do Not Call Registry violations are included along with other TCPA claims. This may include claims regarding robocalls, automatic dialing systems, spam texts and unsolicited faxes.
