PerformLine Study Finds Nearly 85% of Webpages Not in Compliance with New Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) Regulations
Morristown, NJ (PRWEB) October 21, 2013 -- Continuing its mission to help marketers protect their brands through verifiable compliance monitoring and discovery technologies, PerformLine announced today the results of their study done using the PerformMatch™ platform to analyze compliance with the new TCPA rules over a wide sampling of sites.
The PerformLine study found that 85% of the webpages that captured contact information failed to meet one or more of the new rules from the Telephone Consumer Protection Act that went into effect last week. New TCPA regulations took effect on October 16, 2013 that require marketers to get prior express written consent from consumers and each request must have a “clear and conspicuous disclosure” alerting the consumer that they will received future calls via an automated dialing system or “auto dialer.”
The study found that, in aggregate, only 15% of pages reviewed were in compliance with the new TCPA rules. Other data shows:
• 48% of pages failed to achieve compliance because of invalid disclaimer language
• 34% of pages failed because the page was missing disclaimer language
• 29% of pages failed because no option to provide express written consent was found on the page
At the Brand level (meaning for each brand across any site), the study found that:
• the highest ranking brand had 85% of their pages meeting TCPA compliance rules
• while the lowest ranking brand had 0% of their pages meeting TCPA compliance rules
At the Lead Seller or Web Publisher level:
• the highest ranking lead seller had 100% compliance on their pages
• while the lowest ranking seller had 0% of their pages meeting compliance rules
The study was done using data discovered by the PerformMatch web crawler, Kraken™, which uncovered an array of lead generation sites (including those in consumer finance, higher education, insurance, etc.) and the pages on those sites requesting consumer contact information. A significant sampling of webpages, taken from the Kraken database which includes of millions URLs and over 18 billion compliance observations, was used as the basis for the calculations. The PerformMatch TCPA Toolkit then analyzed and graded every request for information page for compliance with the TCPA’s express written consent and unambiguous disclosure rules as defined by the FCC.
“This research shows there is still a lot of work to be done by marketers and lead sellers to be in compliance with the new TCPA rules,” stated Alex Baydin, CEO and Founder of PerformLine. “But, the best way for marketers to avoid being involved in a costly TCPA lawsuit is to be proactive and remediate potential violations immediately.”
Under the TCPA, consumers can bring about class action lawsuits and state attorney generals can also bring suit against marketers that violate TCPA rules. The TCPA provides for damages ranging from $500.00 to $1,500.00 per unsolicited call/message. One recent settlement was over $32 million dollars.
To mitigate the risk of litigation, the PerformMatch TCPA Toolkit gives marketers the ability to take a proactive approach to TCPA compliance by finding, documenting and remediating potential problems. The platform also documents consent and disclosure with a screenshot and stores the image for up to 5 years. PerformLine clients are also able to leverage the proprietary tools of the PerformMatch SaaS platform to ensure that any direct advertising, affiliate advertising and call center activity done on their behalf are compliant.
Companies interested in learning their TPCA score from the PerformLine survey are welcome to contact PerformLine via email at sales(at)performline(dot)com to get a clear picture of their current compliance versus TCPA rules and where there may be exposure risks.
Companies can also learn more about the TCPA toolset for PerformMatch™ or any of the other elements of our suite of compliance services by visiting http://www.performline.com.
About PerformLine
PerformLine develops and delivers the most advanced compliance monitoring services for marketers. Leading companies looking to optimize their businesses choose the PerformMatch™ SaaS platform to discover, monitor and enforce regulatory and brand compliance. The PerformMatch platform provides the most comprehensive solution for regulatory marketing oversight in a single platform, always on, always monitoring. PerformLine, Inc. is headquartered in Morristown, N.J. For more information about PerformLine and the PerformMatch compliance platform, visit http://www.performline.com or email sales(at)performline(dot)com.
Claire Milazzo, PerformLine, Inc., http://www.performline.com, +1 (973) 590-2305, [email protected]
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