The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a complaint in federal court seeking to stop two telemarketing operations and their principals for allegedly facilitating billions of illegal robocalls to consumers nationwide. Commenting on this action, FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Andrew Smith advised that “we will go after not only robocallers, but also companies [...]
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) requires “prior express consent” for non-marketing calls and texts made using an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) or prerecorded message. The TCPA further specifies that for transactional text messages and calls using an ATDS or prerecorded message, “persons who knowingly release their phone numbers have in effect given their [...]
Last month we discussed whether, in the wake of ACA Int’l v. FCC and the subsequent district court ruling in Marshall, a predictive dialer still qualifies as an ATDS. The answer depends, in part, on whether ACA Int’l invalidates the FCC’s 2003 and 2008 predictive dialer rulings (in addition to its 2015 TCPA Order). Two [...]
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has accepted the recommendations of the North American Numbering Council (NANC) to institute a governance authority to oversee implementation of the SHAKEN/STIR protocols. The FCC and NANC hope the framework will help fight robocalls and spoofed numbers by providing procedures to authenticate caller ID information associated with telephone calls. SHAKEN/STIR is [...]
Last week, the D.C. Circuit’s decision in ACA Int’l v. FCC, which set aside portions of the FCC’s 2015 TCPA Order, became effective. The FCC wasted little time reopening the underlying proceedings. Through this Public Notice, the FCC seeks comment on the interpretation of the TCPA in light of the D.C. Circuit’s decision. In particular, [...]
The Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) made good on its proposed $120 million fine against Adrian Abramovich, an infamous caller who, as we previously reported, made over 96 million robocalls to sell timeshares and other vacation packages. The calls purported to be from Marriott, Expedia, TripAdvisor and other well-known companies, but when the consumer “pressed 1” [...]
The federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA; 47 U.S.C. § 227) and its implementing regulations (47 C.F.R. § 64.1200) regulate the use of automatic telephone dialing systems (“ATDS”) and artificial or prerecorded voices (“prerecorded messages”) in telephone communications. Generally speaking, the TCPA prohibits using an ATDS or prerecorded message to contact cell phones, and prerecorded [...]
Florida recently passed two bills, Senate Bills 740 and 568 respectively, which amend Florida’s telemarketing law as follows: The definition of telephonic sales call expressly covers voicemail messages, including ringless voicemail, thereby bringing such messages within the scope of the state’s telemarketing rules; Telemarketers must honor company-specific Do Not Call requests from businesses; Telemarketers must [...]
Now that the D.C. Circuit, in ACA Int’l v. FCC, set aside the portion of the FCC’s 2015 TCPA Order pertaining to the definition of an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS), callers want an answer to a seemingly simple question: Is a predictive dialer an ATDS? The issue is more complex than it seems but [...]
Sound TCPA compliance policies, vigilant complaint investigations, and prompt enforcement were key to rebutting class action claims that sellers ratified telemarketers’ TCPA violations according to a recent opinion from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. UTC Fire & Security Americas Corporation and Honeywell International manufacture home security systems and sell them to distributors and/or retailers. [...]
