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FCC: New Proposal Will Clarify Auto-Dialing Rules

TMCnews Featured Article


June 01, 2015

FCC: New Proposal Will Clarify Auto-Dialing Rules

By Mae Kowalke, TMCnet Contributor


Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler (News - Alert) dropped a bomb recently when he announced in an FCC blog post that he had circulated a proposal to other FCC commissioners that will address numerous issues under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).


TCPA litigation has been increasingly common in recent years as technology makes it easier for businesses to make poor judgments when contacting consumers. More than 2,000 TCPA-related lawsuits were filed in 2014 alone, according to JD Supra Business Advisor.

The FCC (News - Alert) released a fact sheet along with Wheeler's blog post. It noted that the proposal includes several declaratory rulings that will address nearly two dozen petitions that have asked the FCC to clear up significant ambiguities in the FCC's previous TCPA orders and rulings. Specifically, the proper definition of an "automatic telephone dialing system" and whether the TCPA is violated by autodialed or prerecorded calls to numbers for which consent had been given but subsequently reassigned, will be addressed.

The FCC will vote on the proposal at the FCC’s Open Commission Meeting scheduled for June 18.

The actual content in the proposal will not be made public prior to the voting, but Wheeler’s blog post and the FCC fact sheet outline some of what is contained therein.

Wheeler has noted that the proposal would clarify that an "automatic telephone dialing system" (or "autodialer") includes "any technology with the capacity to dial random or sequential numbers.”

The proposed ruling, he noted in the blog, is intended to “ensure robocallers cannot skirt consumer consent requirements through changes in calling technology design or by calling from a list of numbers.”

Among other parts of the proposal that deal with permitting only a single call to be a reassigned or "recycled" number, enable consumers to revoke their consent to receive calls "in any way reasonable at any time,” and creating an exception to liability for narrowly defined urgent calls, the proposal apparently authorizes carriers to offer a "do not disturb" technology.

The proposal supposedly outlines that both wireless and landline carriers would be permitted to offer consumers technological means of blocking incoming robocalls.

These changes should not affect businesses that properly use automated dialing technology, but they surely will change the way that businesses need to think about their calling campaigns.

Stay tuned for updates on this pending clarification of FCC rules.




Edited by Rory J. Thompson







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