The National Do-Not-Call List: Rules Every Car Dealer Must Follow
While CASL governs email and texts, the National Do Not Call List (DNCL) governs telemarketing calls and faxes. Canadian dealerships that cold-call prospects — or even call aged leads and past customers — need to understand the DNCL rules, because the CRTC enforces them separately from CASL and just as firmly. A compliant email program does not make your phone room compliant.
What the DNCL Is
The National DNCL is a registry of phone and fax numbers that consumers have signed up to block from telemarketing. If a number is on the list, telemarketers generally cannot call it. Businesses that make telemarketing calls must first subscribe to the DNCL, download the current list, and scrub their calling numbers against it on a regular basis. Registration is a prerequisite, not an afterthought.
How It Applies to Your BDC
If your business development centre calls prospects to promote vehicles, financing, or service specials, those are telemarketing calls, full stop. Registering with the DNCL and scrubbing your lists is not optional for that activity. Failing to subscribe before you dial is itself a violation, entirely separate from the violation of calling a listed number. Many dealers are surprised to learn the two are counted independently.
The Exemptions Dealers Rely On
Several exemptions let you call people even if their number appears on the DNCL, but each carries conditions you must respect:
Existing business relationship — a purchase or lease within 18 months, or an inquiry within 6 months
Callers acting with the consumer's express consent to be called
Calls that are not telemarketing at all, such as confirming a booked service appointment or a recall notice
Even when an exemption applies, you must maintain your own internal do-not-call list and honour any request to stop calling within the required timeframe.
Your Internal Do-Not-Call List
Independent of the national registry, every dealership must keep its own internal do-not-call list. If a customer asks you not to call them, you must record that request and stop, and the request stands for years. Ignoring an internal opt-out is one of the easiest violations to prove — the customer told you directly — and one of the most common sources of complaints, because it feels personal to the person on the receiving end.
Building DNCL Compliance Into Your Process
Manual scrubbing against a downloaded list is slow and error-prone, especially with staff turnover in a busy phone room. The reliable approach is a calling workflow that automatically flags listed and opted-out numbers, records exemption status against each contact, and blocks non-compliant dials before they ever happen. That protects your team from accidental violations while still letting them call every lead they are legally entitled to reach.
This is general information, not legal advice; consult counsel about your telemarketing practices.
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