The Wisconsin Telemarketing Sales Rule (ATCP 127) and the Wisconsin Do Not Call Law provide Wisconsin consumers with important protections.
What calls are covered by the Wisconsin Telemarketing Sales Rule?
The rule applies to most telephone solicitations aimed at Wisconsin consumers, no matter where the calls originate.
The Wisconsin Telemarketing Sales Rule:
Requires disclosures to consumers
Prohibits deceptive sales practices
Provides a 3-day right to cancel
Prohibits unauthorized withdrawal of funds from consumer accounts
Regulates prize offers
Prohibits calls to consumers who have asked seller not to call
Prohibits calls before 8 AM or after 9 PM.
What is the Wisconsin Do Not Call Registry?
The Wisconsin Do Not Call Registry gives consumers an option to limit the number of telemarketing calls they receive. The Do Not Call Registry is for residential telephone customers only.
How does the Do Not Call Registry work?
Consumers who want to limit the sales calls they receive place their phone numbers on the Do Not Call Registry. Once you register your phone number, telemarketers covered by the Wisconsin and National Do Not Call Registries have up to 31 days from the date you register to stop calling you.
Who manages the Do Not Call Registry?
The Do Not Call Registry is managed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). DATCP uses the list to enforce violations of state law.
How will my number be protected if I put it on the Registry?
Registered telemarketers have access to the Registry so they know who not to call. Telemarketers are prohibited by law from selling or redistributing the Registry. Telemarketers are also prohibited from using the Registry to make sales calls.
Can I register my business number?
The Do Not Call Registry is for residential numbers only.
How does Wisconsin’s Do Not Call Law protect me?
A telemarketer is prohibited from doing the following under Wisconsin law:
Make telephone solicitations to a residential telephone customer, unless the telemarketer is covered by a current registration with DATCP
Make a telephone solicitation to a residential telephone customer whose telephone number appears on the current Do Not Call Registry
Use an electronically prerecorded message in a telephone solicitation to a residential or nonresidential telephone customer without the prior consent of that telephone customer
Fail to disclose, at the request of a residential telephone customer receiving a telephone solicitation, the telemarketer’s registration number
Make a telephone solicitation to a nonresidential telephone customer (business) if that business has notified the telemarketer by mail that the business does not wish to receive telephone solicitations. A telemarketer must provide a business with the telemarketer’s mailing address within 10 days after the business requests it.
Use caller-ID blocking when making a telephone solicitation
I have more questions that aren’t answered here.
Please send your questions to DATCPHotline@wisconsin.gov.