FCC Chairman Wheeler has announced that he is circulating a proposal to address more than twenty backlogged petitions seeking clarity regarding the scope of the requirements under the U.S. Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”). He authored a blog post on the proposal.
As part of the Chairman’s proposal, the FCC would issue the following rulings:
1. Consumers can revoke their consent to receive automated “robocalls” and texts in any reasonable way at any time;
2. Callers would be prohibited from calling reassigned telephone numbers after one call;
3. Carriers would be expressly allowed to offer robocall-blocking technology;
4. The term “automatic telephone dialing system” in the TCPA would be interpreted to encompass any technology with the capacity to dial random or sequential numbers; and
5. Exceptions would be allowed in limited, specific circumstances for urgent communications, such as for bank account fraud and prescription refill reminders (the calls and SMS/texts must be free and consumers would still be able to opt-out).
The proposal is available here and is expected to be voted on at the FCC’s next open meeting in June.
This announcement should be of interest to any company or individual using outbound telephone calls to market goods or services. Contact a telemarketing compliance lawyer if you are interested in discussing the design and implementation of telemarketing compliance controls, or if you are already the subject of a regulatory investigation or enforcement action.
