The Australian Media and Communications Authority’s (ACMA) push to eliminate nuisance telemarketing calls could get a boost following the inaugural International Do Not Call (DNC) Forum held in Paris on Friday.
The forum, which brought together communications regulators from Australia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Korea, Mexico, the UK and US, sought to share Do Not Call register best practices, identify cross-border challenges, investigate greater information sharing between nations and a greater alignment of anti-spam email measures with anti-spam call measures.
According to an ACMA spokesperson, the forum also sought to provide alternate ways of improving DNC compliance in offshore entities and identify international DNC global trends with a view to establishing a consolidated response to common issues.
It also examined an expansion of the group’s membership and the establishment of a regular International Do Not Call Forum.
“While we expect the Forum won’t lead to dramatic changes to the way we conduct our work, it will play a very helpful role in future compliance and investigatory activity,” the spokesperson told Computerworld Australia.
“We anticipate most of that benefit will come from good working relations with our overseas counterparts.
“Through these we can share knowledge about what practices we’re seeing in our respective jurisdictions and can offer limited assistance to investigations in other countries.”
According to the spokesperson, a recent ACMA survey had indicated that 88 per cent of new subscribers to the Do Not Call Register had experienced an immediate reduction in the level of unwanted telemarketing calls received and, as ACMA says, it's evident that the register works.
In June this year, the ACMA imposed its first penalty against a telemarketer for breaching the Do Not Call Register Act 2006 following the finding by the Federal Court that FHT Travel and its sole director, Yvonne Earnshaw, had breached the Act by contacting 12,000 people on the register, costing the company $120,000 in civil penalty costs.
In September, the ACMA issued a fine to Melbourne telecommunications service provider Telko following the finding that a call centre used by Telko made telemarketing calls to numbers on the DNC register.