National Consumer Law Center meets with FCC on TCPA issues in response to petitions for reconsideration, including from ACA, of regulations on calls. Editor’s note: This article is for members only.
9/13/2021 10:00
The National Consumer Law Center, Consumer Action, EPIC, the Consumer Federation of America, and Consumer Reports recently met with the Federal Communications Commission’s Consumer and Government Affairs Bureau and discussed support of the need for the FCC to clarify prior express consent and written consent for non-telemarketing calls.
The meeting was in response to the various petitions for reconsideration filed about a new regulation limiting prerecorded calls to residential lines issued in 2020 by the FCC as required by the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act.
In a letter summarizing its meeting with the FCC, the NCLC agreed that the FCC should clarify prior express consent and written consent for non-telemarketing calls.
ACA International has also been a part of similar meetings on the same issues and filed a petition for reconsideration.
ACA Vice President and Senior Counsel of Federal Advocacy Leah Dempsey was among representatives of various associations who met with staff from the FCC in June to discuss Telephone Consumer Protection Act issues, including a petition on prior express consent, ACA previously reported.
They discussed their March 2021 petition to reconsider a limited portion of the TCPA Exemptions Order, which “adopted new and counterproductive restrictions on informational prerecorded calls to residential landlines that have been exempt from the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s prior express consent requirements for approximately 30 years,” according to the ex parte notice.
ACA and the associations also requested for the FCC to issue an erratum and confirm that prior express written consent is not required to place informational prerecorded calls to residential landlines.
Regarding prior express consent, the NCLC and the groups at the meeting with the FCC recommended that the commission confirm that the interpretation of “prior express consent” for utilities should apply equally to calls made to cellphones and residential landlines.
They also claim there is no basis to differentiate between the types of equipment being called. Regarding written consent for non-telemarketing calls, the parties agree that the FCC should correct their error and clarify that the commission does not require written consent for prerecorded calls to residential lines made pursuant to the exemptions.
They argue that this correction is necessary, as there was no mention in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the TCPA indicating that the commission was considering imposing this new requirement on non-telemarketing calls, nor was there an indication in the commission’s final issuance, in December 2020, of the regulations that the commission had decided to do so.
However, the groups and the NCLC also oppose several actions ACA is working with the FCC to complete, including that the FCC should maintain the limits on exempt calls and debt collection and health care calls are areas where the Commission should limit calls. The groups also reiterate their support for opt-out mechanisms.
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ACA Joins Others in Ex Parte on TCPA Issues Following Meeting with FCC