FTC Announces Fee Structure for Access to DNC List

The Federal Trade Commission announced the fees that companies will pay for access to the national do-not-call registry.

The FTC announced the annual cost for companies to access telephone numbers in the registry will be $25 per area code, up to a maximum annual fee of $7,375 to access numbers for the entire country. There will be no charge for companies to access the first five area codes of data.

The FTC revealed the fee structure in releasing final rules to the amended Telemarketing Sales Rule.

The Direct Marketing Association responded angrily. “Forcing marketers to pay over $7,300 annually for access to the government do-not-call list [is] a new and unreasonable tax on doing business,” a statement from the DMA said.

When the DNC list was first proposed, it was supposed to cost only $3 million to administer, said Jerry Cersale, senior vice president of government affairs at the DMA, in a statement. “[It