The exemptions, required for consideration under TRACED Act, may cover informational and debt collection calls.
10/9/2020 15:15
The Federal Communications Commission’s comment deadline for a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to review Telephone Consumer Protection Act exemptions required by the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act is Oct. 26, according to the Oct. 9 notice in the Federal Register.
The exemptions may cover debt collection calls. Section eight of the TRACED Act requires the FCC to periodically review any exemptions granted under the TCPA and update them as needed.
The scope of this NPRM will have industry-wide significance for callers in the accounts receivable management (ARM) industry.
According to the FCC, the NPRM includes proposed measures to implement section eight of the TRACED Act and seek comment on how we can best implement it. Specifically, as directed by the TRACED Act, the FCC seeks to ensure that any exemption adopted includes requirements with respect to the classes of parties that may make such calls; the classes of parties that may be called; and the number of such calls that may be made to a particular called party, according to the NPRM.
“As we implement section eight of the TRACED Act, we seek to protect individual privacy interests without preventing calls consumers want. Accordingly, we seek comment on any conditions that are necessary to ensure that the existing exemptions for calls made to residential telephone lines satisfy section eight and propose to allow residential consumers to opt out of any calls made pursuant to an exemption,” it states.
Of the various exemptions under review, the FCC will reconsider exemptions allowing prerecorded calls to residential landlines that are “not made for a commercial purpose,” and prerecorded calls to residential landlines that are “made for a commercial purpose,” but do not “include or introduce an advertisement or constitute telemarketing.” (Emphasis added.)
The FCC is seeking comment on whether to amend the exemptions previously determined to comply with the TRACED Act. These exemptions include non-commercial calls to a residence; commercial calls to a residence that do not constitute telemarketing; tax-exempt nonprofit organization calls to a residence; HIPAA-related calls to a residence; package delivery-related calls to a wireless number; financial-institution calls to a wireless number; health care-related calls to a wireless number; inmate calling service calls to a wireless number; and cellular carrier calls to their own subscribers.
Comments are due Oct. 26, and reply comments are due Nov. 3. ACA International will be filing comments on the NPRM.