§6152 Telemarketing Sales Rule; Do-not-call Registry Fees

Summary

The Federal Trade Commission must charge yearly fees to run and enforce the national "do-not-call" phone list. Each person who uses the list pays the smaller of $54 for each area code they access or $14,850 for access to every area code. No fee is charged for the first 5 area codes a person accesses, and people who are allowed but not required to use the list do not have to pay. A person’s "annual period" is the 12 months starting on the first day of the month they pay. If someone wants extra area codes after paying the basic fee, the FTC charges more per area code: $54 if added in the first 6 months of their annual period, or $27 if added in the last 6 months. The amounts shown are for fiscal year 2009. After that year the fees can rise each year by the percentage the consumer price index (CPI) exceeds the 2008 baseline CPI, rounded to the nearest dollar, but only if the change is at least 1%. The FTC must publish any fee changes by September 1 each year. Fees go into the FTC’s Salaries and Expenses account and can be collected only if Congress provides the money in advance. Also, people may not enter arrangements to split or share these fees.