Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, PRIVACY NEWS: Robocall data included in FTC’s FY 2015 Do Not Call Registry Data Book, (Nov 20, 2015)

The FTC has issued its National Do Not Call Registry Data Book for Fiscal Year 2015 (October 1, 2014 to September 30, 2015), including data on illegal robocalls, the agency has announced.

The FTC's National Do Not Call Registry lets consumers choose not to receive telemarketing calls. The National Do Not Call Registry Data Book, in its seventh year of publication, contains extensive information about that registry, such as month-by-month complaint figures, registration and complaint figures by state and by area code, and the number of active registrations and consumer complaints since the Registry began in 2003.

This year's Data Book reveals that the Do Not Call Registry contains nearly 223 million actively registered telephone numbers, approximately 5 million more than during the last fiscal year. The number of consumer complaints about unwanted telemarketing calls received increased from 3,241,086 during FY 2014 to 3,578,720 during FY 2015.

The Data Book also reveals trends in complaint data. In addition to providing information on the total number of consumer complaints per month, it contains data on the number of monthly complaints specifically related to pre-recorded telemarketing “robocalls,” and requests for a telemarketer to stop calling.

Robocalls. During the past fiscal year, the FTC has continued to receive many consumer complaints about robocalls. The number of complaints varied by month, ranging between a low of 135,027 in November 2014 and a high of 206,054 in April of this year.

Most telemarketing robocalls have been illegal since September 2009. As part of the FTC’s ongoing efforts to stop illegal robocalls, the agency announced its third public technology challenge in March 2015, “Robocalls: Humanity Strikes Back.” The contest asked contestants to create a technical solution for consumers that will identify unwanted robocalls received on landlines or mobile phones, and block and forward those calls to a honeypot. The winners were announced at Def Con 23 in August 2015.

News: Privacy ConsumerProtection FederalTradeCommissionNews