The DMA (UK) is urging members to back its call for a review of the Corporate Telephone Preference Service (CTPS), which requires anyone making unsolicited outbound sales and marketing calls to check and suppress numbers that appear on the register.
Ironically, the CTPS is actually run by the DMA, although it lobbied unsuccessfully against its introduction in 2004.
Now the Contact Centre & Telemarketing Council is canvassing members about their views on the CTPS, so it can build a dossier of evidence on how it damages businesses. It is aiming to present this to regulators and policy makers in Whitehall to back its claims.
As far back as 2005 – just 6 months after launch – the DTI and Ofcom were being urged to review the CTPS, following research showing the system was open to abuse by large corporations.
The study, carried out by business information specialists Mardev, claimed that over 40,000 telephone numbers from big companies had registered with CTPS, promoting a sense of anti-competitiveness that could damage small business – the very people it was set up to protect.
