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Glossary · Compliance

What is Established business relationship?

  • Also called: ebr, existing business relationship

Reviewed by Sujan ThapaliyaLast updated

Definition

An established business relationship is a narrow exemption allowing calls to someone on the do-not-call registry because of a recent transaction or enquiry. Under the Telemarketing Sales Rule it runs for eighteen months after a purchase and three months after an enquiry.
The three STIR/SHAKEN attestation levels, which underpin how established business relationship behaves in practice: A asserts both that the carrier knows the customer and that the customer may use the calling number, B asserts the customer only, and C asserts neither. A shared number pool can reach B at best, which is why number ownership keeps recurring in these definitions.
Attestation is the backdrop to most caller-ID and deliverability terms, established business relationship included.

In practice

How established business relationship actually works

The windows are shorter than most sellers assume, and they are measured from the last transaction rather than from the start of the relationship.

The exemption never overrides a direct request to stop calling. Someone on your internal do-not-call list stays there regardless of how recently they bought.

Because it is a defence rather than a permission, it has to be evidenced: the date, the transaction and the source all need to be in the record before a complaint arrives, not reconstructed afterwards.

The exemption is also seller-specific rather than transferable. A relationship your parent company or a partner has does not extend to you, and buying a customer list does not buy the relationships in it. That distinction is the one most often got wrong in practice, usually after an acquisition.

Worked example

A purchase in March creates a window to the following September; an enquiry in March creates one to June. Both end early if the person asks you to stop.

Established business relationship: common questions

How long does an established business relationship last?
Eighteen months from the last purchase or payment, and three months from an enquiry or application. Both run from the most recent event, not the first one.
Does an existing relationship override the do-not-call registry?
Within those windows it can, for the seller in question. It never overrides a direct request to stop calling, which takes effect immediately and permanently.
What evidence do I need?
The date and nature of the transaction or enquiry, and its source, held in the record. An exemption you cannot evidence at the moment it is challenged is not an exemption.

Sources

  1. Combating Spoofed Robocalls with Caller ID Authentication — Federal Communications CommissionThe STIR/SHAKEN framework, the attestation levels carriers sign calls with, and the mandate requiring providers to authenticate caller ID.
  2. 47 U.S.C. § 227 — Restrictions on the use of telephone equipment — Cornell Legal Information InstituteThe Telephone Consumer Protection Act itself — the consent requirements, calling-hours limits, and private right of action.
  3. ITU-T Recommendation E.164 — The international public telecommunication numbering plan — International Telecommunication UnionThe international number format, the 15-digit maximum, and how country codes and national numbers compose.

See established business relationship in the product

An auto dialer is any system that places outbound calls without a person keying digits. There are four modes — power, preview, progressive and predictive — and they differ in how many calls run per rep and who hears the phone ring first. All four are in the base product here, switchable per campaign.

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