As many in the contact center industry are certainly aware, sweeping changes to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), as laid forth by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC (News - Alert)), have recently taken effect. As of Oct. 16, 2013, companies are prohibited from making calls to cell phones using automated dialing systems or artificial or prerecorded voices without first obtaining prior express written consent of the consumer.

This obviously has a huge bearing on telemarketing firms and other companies that frequently utilize outbound call center capabilities. Companies must now acquire a signed written agreement explicitly permitting such communications, and must do so regardless of any prior “established business relationships” cultivated under previous TCPA formulations. What qualifies as written consent is more complicated than it might seem, and exceptions to the rule can be just as confounding. 

Penalties for non-compliance can be staggering, and consumers are increasingly reporting TCPA violations. It thus behooves a business with ongoing or planned outbound customer communication strategies to become intimately acquainted with these new rules and how best to maintain compliance under TCPA regulations.

Fortunately, Five9 (News - Alert) has already done some of the heavy lifting, hitting the legal books hard to determine precisely what types of communications require what type of consent. Five9’s Strategic BPO Solutions Executive of Enterprise Sales Thomas M. Rocca will be presenting at the Miami Compliance Seminar and Summit this week to discuss some of these dos and don’ts of TCPA liability to help companies avoid newly dug telemarketing pitfalls.

Joining him will be legal experts Eric S. Allen of Allen Legal Services PLLC and TelemarketingLawyer.com, and Andrew Cove of Cove & Associates, P.A. Together, the group will discuss a host of compliance issues, including the new FCC rules, state and federal Do-Not-Call programs, mandatory disclosures, call center licensing and bonding, key exemptions, call recording, and important 2013 telemarketing court cases. 

“I'm excited to present and have been asked to provide a broad overview of federal and state telemarketing law.  Of particular importance will be my review of the FCC's new wireless consent rules,” said Allen. “Call centers need to understand and adapt to the ever-changing regulatory environment.  Consumer complaints and class actions are on the rise so the cost of ignoring or misunderstanding the rules is now higher than ever.”

“DNC.com is proud to present the Miami Compliance Summit with telemarketing and TCPA attorneys Eric Allen and Andrew Cove along with leading contact center vendors Five9, NeuStar (News - Alert), and NobelBiz,” added Ryan Thurman, director of sales and marketing at Contact Center Compliance. “With the recent major change to express written consent as part of the TCPA amendments, there is no better time to build a compliance strategy to bridge the wireless compliance cliff.”