Capital One petition prompts comment request on informational text messages.
11/18/2019 8:30
Rules for opt-out text messages and confirmation messages under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act are the subject of a recent request for comment from the Federal Communications Commission.
The FCC issued a public notice for comments after Capital One Services LLC (Capital One) filed a petition for declaratory ruling stating, “if the sender of a lawful informational text message transmitted through an automatic telephone dialing system (‘ATDS’) receives a valid opt-out request from the recipient in response to that message, and that informational message was part of a program in which the recipient had previously enrolled that transmits several categories of informational messages, then, pursuant to the Commission’s ruling in Soundbite, the sender may clarify in an opt-out confirmation message to the recipient the scope of the recipient’s opt-out request without violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (‘TCPA’) or related Commission rules.”
The Soundbite ruling from the FCC, issued in 2012, solidified that sending a one-time confirmation text message in response to a consumer’s request for no further messages is not a violation of the TCPA.
ACA International has been seeking additional clarity on this and other TCPA-related issues from both Congress and the FCC.
While the industry awaits further clarity on the definition of an ATDS and call authentication and blocking requirements from the FCC, responding to this request for comment is an important opportunity to make the industry’s voice heard on the TCPA. ACA International encourages members and industry professionals to respond, please send thoughts and comments to Vice President and Senior Counsel, Federal Advocacy Leah Dempsey at [email protected].
Comments to the FCC are due on Dec. 9, 2019, with reply comments due on Dec. 24.