Notification of fee changes for telemarketers (2018-2020)

Consumer Protection BC is an independent, self-funded, not-for-profit organization. Government has tasked us with regulating and licensing your sector. We have the legal authority to set your licensing fees and other charges. In doing so, we are required by law to recover our costs, to consult with you and to provide at least ninety (90) days’ notice prior to changing or introducing new fees.

What is happening?                                                                                   

We are notifying you that the licensing fees and other charges for 2018-2020 are changing. Our Board of Directors has approved the following fee changes that will take effect January 1, 2018.

• Annual 2% increases for all licence fees and other charges for 2018-2020.
• Fees for replacement licences and late licence renewal have been eliminated.

* For more information about changes to the structure of subsequent licence renewals (starting in 2018), please read the information below.

For a full listing of all fee changes and other charges for your sector, please review the 2018 fee schedule.

Why are fees changing?

Your licensing fees pay for the direct costs of regulating your sector, such as licensing, compliance inspections, complaint handling and enforcement activities, as well as indirect costs like IT, finance and accounting, office rent, etc. Every effort is made to control and maintain the cost of regulating your sector; however, some increases are unavoidable. In some cases, cost increases are consistent with inflation, in other cases, increases are based on specific and unique factors related to a sector (for example, changes to the law that result in new regulatory requirements).

Consumer Protection BC’s costs for regulating the telemarketing sector have remained relatively consistently since 2015. Therefore, we are continuing with a 2% annual increase, as in the previous three years.

You will also notice a new structure for licence renewal fees, effective January 1, 2018. You will pay a lower fee if you renew your licence at least two (2) weeks before it expires. This means you will pay less if you renew your licence at least two weeks prior to its expiry starting with 2018 licence renewals.

Additionally, we will no longer be charging late fees. If you don’t renew your licence by its expiry date, you will need to submit a new licence application, which costs more money.

The purpose of these changes is to encourage you – our licensee– to renew your licence before its expiry date. This will create efficiencies when we process licence renewals and will benefit you, as a licensee.

If you want to learn more about the fee review process to date, please read the fee review consultation document.