justFRED.ca - justFRED Blogs » Blog Archive » National Do Not Call List To Go Live September 30, 2008

Tired of telemarketers calling you just as you sit down to supper with your family or racking up charges on your cell phone?

After years of complaints from Canadian consumers, the federal government is expected to launch the National Do Not Call List (DNCL) today, a nation-wide registry that telemarketers will be required to honour or face fines of up to $15,000 per infraction.

Currently, each telemarketer is required to maintain and honour its own DNCL, a duplication of effort and a main pain for Canadians who must register with each individual list, a system that has all the earmarks of being designed to be unusable.

While the national DNCL will be free for consumers, and is expected to reduce annoying telemarketing calls, there are also enough exceptions to guarantee your mealtimes and cellphone won't be entirely free of annoying calls. So who are these exceptions allowed by the politicians who put the legislation into place?

- politicians
- registered charities
- newspapers selling subscriptions
- firms conducting public opinion polls
- companies that have an existing business relationship with you
- and calls to businesses.

Further details can be found here.