Know your obligations

You must report any changes to your business within 14 days including a business name change, location change, changing partner or corporate officer, change in business model, or if you are selling your business.

Submit a notice of change form – business information
Submit a notice of change form – purchase of business.
Submit a notice of change form – corporate officers.

Make sure you publicly display your licence in the place of business. You will also be required to include your licence number on any print or web materials, including:

• ads
• business cards
• print collaterals including brochures and flyers
• documentations including contracts

Renew annually by September 30 to maintain your telemarketer licence.

Log in to your MyAccount to complete this process.

It is your responsibility to collect and maintain records of all consumer transactions, your accounting reports, and other financial documents.

You are only allowed to communicate with consumers during weekdays between 9 am and 9:30 pm and weekends between 10 am and 6 pm. No calls are permitted on statutory holidays. You may not contact a consumer more than once in every 30 day period for the same good or service without the consumer’s permission.

You must also disclose information about the call (the supplier) and about the solicited good or service / purpose of a contribution.

BC consumer protection laws require that businesses have a licence for each location from where it conducts business. Conducting business from a location means several things, including:

• A location from which your physical presence, address, or telephone number in British Columbia is given in a telephone directory.
• A location from which your physical presence, address, or telephone number in British Columbia is given in any verbal or written advertisement,
• You have, in British Columbia, a resident agent, or a warehouse, office, or place of business.

We understand that you may provide remote working options to your employees.

Provided they are not conducting business in the way described above, remote workers may work from remote locations if they follow these guidelines:

1. They can only work remotely from their home-based location.
2. If the law or health directives allow, they are only to directly meet and serve clients from licensed locations and not at remote or unlicensed home-based locations.
3. While conducting business, they must only, use the contact information of the licensed location in any visual representation, correspondence, business cards, or on any printed or electronic advertisement.
4. Other than cell phone numbers or corporate IP-based phone numbers, they may not disclose their personal telephone number(s) to suppliers or clients nor reveal that they are conducting business from any unlicensed location.
5. Payments for services may be received only at the licensed office unless those payments are through electronic means via credit card or immediate EFT, and no payment information is retained or stored in the home-based location.
6. All client files, arrangement details, and associated original records of accounting or contracts handled by a telecommuter must be kept at the businesses’ licensed location. (It is permissible for telecommuters to retain copies of routine correspondence and other records at their home-based location).
7. Persons selling or otherwise arranging for the supply of goods and services to consumers with the expectation of receiving payment or benefit for so doing, are deemed to be acting as licensees and are required to comply with the provisions of these guidelines.

Except for items 6 and 7 above, these guidelines do not apply to employees of licensees performing purely accounting or other administrative functions.

We perform routine, random, follow-up, and complaint-based inspections on all our regulated businesses to ensure they comply with the laws we oversee.

By law, you must not engage in deceptive or unconscionable acts.

Read the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act, section 4.