[Code of Federal Regulations] [Title 16, Volume 1] [Revised as of January 1, 2003] From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access [CITE: 16CFR310.2] [Page 373-374] TITLE 16--COMMERCIAL PRACTICES CHAPTER I--FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION PART 310--TELEMARKETING SALES RULE--Table of Contents Sec. 310.2 Definitions. (a) Acquirer means a business organization, financial institution, or an agent of a business organization or financial institution that has authority from an organization that operates or licenses a credit card system to authorize merchants to accept, transmit, or process payment by credit card through the credit card system for money, goods or services, or anything else of value. (b) Attorney General means the chief legal officer of a State. (c) Cardholder means a person to whom a credit card is issued or who is authorized to use a credit card on behalf of or in addition to the person to whom the credit card is issued. (d) Commission means the Federal Trade Commission. (e) Credit means the right granted by a creditor to a debtor to defer payment [[Page 374]] of debt or to incur debt and defer its payment. (f) Credit card means any card, plate, coupon book, or other credit device existing for the purpose of obtaining money, property, labor, or services on credit. (g) Credit card sales draft means any record or evidence of a credit card transaction. (h) Credit card system means any method or procedure used to process credit card transactions involving credit cards issued or licensed by the operator of that system. (i) Customer means any person who is or may be required to pay for goods or services offered through telemarketing. (j) Investment opportunity means anything, tangible or intangible, that is offered, offered for sale, sold, or traded based wholly or in part on representations, either express or implied, about past, present, or future income, profit, or appreciation. (k) Material means likely to affect a person's choice of, or conduct regarding, goods or services. (l) Merchant means a person who is authorized under a written contract with an acquirer to honor or accept credit cards, or to transmit or process for payment credit card payments, for the purchase of goods or services. (m) Merchant agreement means a written contract between a merchant and an acquirer to honor or accept credit cards, or to transmit or process for payment credit card payments, for the purchase of goods or services. (n) Outbound telephone call means a telephone call initiated by a telemarketer to induce the purchase of goods or services. (o) Person means any individual, group, unincorporated association, limited or general partnership, corporation, or other business entity. (p) Prize means anything offered, or purportedly offered, and given, or purportedly given, to a person by chance. For purposes of this definition, chance exists if a person is guaranteed to receive an item and, at the time of the offer or purported offer, the telemarketer does not identify the specific item that the person will receive. (q) Prize promotion means: (1) A sweepstakes or other game of chance; or (2) An oral or written express or implied representation that a person has won, has been selected to receive, or may be eligible to receive a prize or purported prize. (r) Seller means any person who, in connection with a telemarketing transaction, provides, offers to provide, or arranges for others to provide goods or services to the customer in exchange for consideration. (s) State means any State of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, and any territory or possession of the United States. (t) Telemarketer means any person who, in connection with telemarketing, initiates or receives telephone calls to or from a customer. (u) Telemarketing means a plan, program, or campaign which is conducted to induce the purchase of goods or services by use of one or more telephones and which involves more than one interstate telephone call. The term does not include the solicitation of sales through the mailing of a catalog which: Contains a written description or illustration of the goods or services offered for sale; includes the business address of the seller; includes multiple pages of written material or illustrations; and has been issued not less frequently than once a year, when the person making the solicitation does not solicit customers by telephone but only receives calls initiated by customers in response to the catalog and during those calls takes orders only without further solicitation. For purposes of the previous sentence, the term further solicitation does not include providing the customer with information about, or attempting to sell, any other item included in the same catalog which prompted the customer's call or in a substantially similar catalog. [[Page 375]]