AustraliaTelecommunications (Telemarketing and Research Calls) Industry Standard 2017
Telecommunications (Telemarketing and Research Calls) Industry Standard 2017 (Cth), ss. 5, 8-15
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What follows is LexLint's own research summary of this law, not legal advice.
In force since .
A telephone contact rule binding public and private bodies.
As of .
What it requires
- Do not make, cause to be made, or attempt to make a telemarketing call that is not a research call on a weekday before 9am or after 8pm, a Saturday before 9am or after 5pm, a Sunday, or a listed national public holiday (or its in-lieu weekday holiday), unless the account-holder or their nominee gave express advance consent to that day or time.
- For a research or opinion-polling call, keep to the same calling times except that a weekday call may run until 8.30pm and a Sunday call is permitted from 9am to 5pm; the public-holiday bar still applies.
- As soon as a call that is not a research call starts, give the caller's given name (unless the call uses only a recorded or synthetic voice), the business name of the caller's employer or, if self-employed, the caller's own business name, the name of whoever caused the call to be made, and the purpose of the call, unless the recipient ends the call first or the caller ends it within 5 seconds without speaking to them; for a research call, give the same information except that the identity of whoever caused the call may instead be given on request or before the call ends.
- On request, give the contact details of the caller's employer or, if self-employed, the caller's own details, the contact details of whoever caused the call to be made, and the name and contact details of whoever handles inquiries or complaints; contact details must include a business name and an Australian number that can take voice calls during normal business hours, plus at least one current street, postal, email or web address.
- Where a call uses a recorded or synthetic voice, provide a mechanism, such as a button to reach an operator, that lets the recipient request the information above.
- Ensure calling line identification is enabled for every call and that the number displayed to the recipient is one that, if called back, will provide the required information and is reasonably likely to be able to receive that return call for at least 30 days.
- Immediately terminate a call, or ensure it is terminated, if the recipient asks for it to end or otherwise indicates they do not want it to continue, or if you learn the recipient is not at the account-holder's usual residential address and is receiving the call at a time that would be a prohibited calling time there, unless the recipient expressly asks for the call to continue.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureNo
Private right of actionNo
Penalty structure
The Standard itself states no penalty. Telecommunications Act 1997 s. 128 makes compliance with a registered industry standard a civil penalty provision, and s. 570(3)(b) and (4)(b) set the default maximum pecuniary penalty for a civil penalty provision with no more specific figure of its own at $250,000 per contravention for a body corporate and $50,000 per contravention for any other person, recoverable by the Federal Court on the application of the Minister, the ACMA or the ACCC (s. 571). Section 129 separately lets the ACMA issue a formal warning for a contravention, without going to court.
- Rule
- Per violation only
- As of
- Currency
- AUD
- Per violation unit
- Violation
- Per violation amount
- 250,000
What it reaches
Obligation class
Disclosure, Consent
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Made by the ACMA under section 125A of the Telecommunications Act 1997, this Standard applies to participants in every section of the telemarketing industry. It binds every telemarketing call (as the Do Not Call Register Act defines it) and research or opinion-polling call to an Australian number, whether or not the number is registered on the Do Not Call Register.
Section 8 bars calling outside permitted hours: a call that is not a research call may be made only on a weekday from 9am to 8pm or a Saturday from 9am to 5pm, and never on a Sunday or a listed national public holiday; a research call may run until 8.30pm on a weekday and is also permitted on a Sunday from 9am to 5pm, subject to the same public-holiday bar, unless the account-holder or their nominee gave express advance consent to a different day or time.
Sections 9 and 10 require a caller to give their name, their or their employer's business name and the call's purpose as soon as the call starts (with an exception for a call the recipient ends first, or the caller ends within 5 seconds), and to give further contact and complaint-handling details immediately on request; section 11 sets what those contact details must include.
Section 12 requires a mechanism, for a call using a recorded or synthetic voice, letting the recipient request that information. Section 13 requires a caller to immediately terminate a call if the recipient asks or otherwise indicates they do not want it to continue, or if the caller learns the recipient is receiving the call, at a location in a different time zone, at a time that would be a prohibited calling time at the account-holder's usual residential address.
Section 14 requires calling line identification to be enabled and to display a number that itself can receive a return call carrying the required information for at least 30 days. A contravention of the Standard is enforced through the Telecommunications Act 1997's own compliance and civil-penalty machinery for industry standards, not through this Standard's own text.
When LexLint raises it
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Read the law
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