FTC Publishes Its 2022 Do Not Call Registry Data Book

In November 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published its annual National Do Not Call Registry Data Book for Fiscal Year 2022. Now in its fourteenth year of publication, the book contains aggregate data about phone numbers on the DNC Registry and the telemarketers and sellers accessing the Registry. It also holds the number of consumer complaints, including the types of calls reported to the FTC and a state-by-state analysis.

Takeaways:

• While consumers added approximately 2.5 million numbers to the Registry in FY22, bringing the total to 246,820,600, the number of organizations accessing the Registry declined, which continues a year-over-year downward trend. In FY22, 11,185 organizations accessed the Registry, down approximately 900 from last year and over 6,500 over the last five years.  Optimistically, fewer organizations are accessing the Registry because they are only calling consumers with whom they have an established business relationship or who have provided express written consent, and not because they are choosing to flout the requirement.  
• For the fourth straight year, most complaints were about “impostor calls,” where callers pose as government officials, legitimate businesses, or as people affiliated with them. Businesses should continue to monitor the reputation of their phone numbers to prevent potential spoofing issues. Complaints about warranties and protection plans comprised the second-most number of complaints, followed by calls related to medical and prescriptions, reducing debt, and energy, solar, and utilities to round out the top five.
• Complaints about robocalls (prerecorded messages) continue to outpace complaints about live calls, by more than 2 to 1 in 2022. Businesses using prerecorded messages should ensure they have express written consent prior to sending these messages.

We recommend clients review the book for additional applicable lessons on mitigating complaints.

The National Do Not Call Registry Data Book for Fiscal Year 2022 is publicly available and may be downloaded here.

Reach out to us at connect@compliancepoint.com if you have any questions about do not call rules or other telemarketing laws.