OTTAWA – Complaints over the National Do Not Call List spiked 13% as DNCL registrations hit 13,186,585, says the CRTC’s annual report released Friday.
During the 2015-2016 reporting period, from April 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016, Canadians registered 294,115 numbers for their landlines, mobile phones, and fax machines, an average of over 805 numbers per day. That’s down from the same period in 2014-15 when Canadians registered 589,286 numbers, averaging 1,600 new numbers every day.
In addition to registering their numbers on the National DNCL, Canadians filed complaints with the National DNCL operator by phone or an online form on the National DNCL website. In 2015-16, Canadians filed 130,209 complaints, an increase of 13% from the year before, with spikes in complaints following the publication of an enforcement action or alerts to warn the public about fraudulent activities.
In comparison with 2014-15, complaints about National DNCL increased by 2%; internal DNCLs decreased by 4%; Automatic Dialing-Announcing Device (ADADs) increased by 6%; dead lines (cases where there is no caller on the line) decreased by 3%; while curfew and other remained the same.
Canadians in all regions made complaints, though a large proportion of complaints, consistent with the total population of Canada, came from Ontario.
Telemarketers participate in the National DNCL regime by both registering with the National DNCL operator and subscribing to the National DNCL. Since the inception of the National DNCL in 2008, there have been over 12,400 telemarketer registrations with the National DNCL operator. Of these, over 575 registrations (5%) were from entities originating from countries outside Canada, the majority being from the U.S.
In 2015-16, 741 telemarketers were registered with the National DNCL operator, an increase of 16% over the previous year. Of those telemarketers, 46 were from outside Canada, including 43 from the U.S. and 1 each from India, Mexico, and the Philippines.
In 2015-16, telemarketers that were registered with the National DNCL operator bought 2,598 subscriptions to the National DNCL to obtain access to telecommunications numbers ranging from one area code for one month to all area codes for one year. This represents an increase of 355 subscriptions, or 16%, from the previous year.
In responding to non-compliance, the CRTC issued 5 warning letters; 8 citations; and 20 notice of violation (NoVs) amounting to $2,028,000 in administrative monetary penalty (AMPs). Of these NoVs, 3 were issued to entities outside Canada. Six NoVs totalling $661,500 in AMPs remained before the CRTC at the end of the reporting period.
The Commission also issued AMPs totalling $1,520,000, and 40.5% of the AMPs issued in the reporting period were collected. Payments to be made in installments beyond 2015-16 represent another 59.5%, for a combined total of 100%.
