FCC APPROVES NEW RULES IN TELEPHONE CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT (TCPA) IN 2015

June 18, 2015. Today, the FCC issues new rules in response to 21 petitions and letters seeking clarifications of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act or the TCPA. The Commission voted 3-2 to approve new TCPA rules after receiving more than 200,000 consumer complaints about robocalls from telemarketers, debt collectors, and other business solicitations.

In short, the new rules provides:

Consumers now have the right to revoke their prior consent to receive calls and text messages from autodialers at any time.
Callers are required to stop calling reassigned wireless and wired telephone numbers after a single call, regardless of whether the caller learns that the number has been reassigned.
The TCPA prohibits the use of automatic telephone dialing systems or ATDS to call wireless phones and to leave prerecorded telemarkting messages on landlines without consent. The Commission clarifies this definition to include machines with a future capacity to dial randomly, sequentially and even from a list of telephone numbers loaded into the dialer.
Consumer survices when a consumer ports his or her telephone number from a land phone to a wireless phone.
Text messages and calls under the TCPA
Consent must come from the called party, not the intended recipient of the call. This ruling was a result of a decision from the Seventh Circuit.
Landline and wireless subscribers still can continue to prevent telemarkting robocalls without prior consent.
Autodialed and prerecorded telemarkting and information calls and text messages to mobile phones still require prior consent.
Consumers have a private right of action for violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act or the TCPA along with other statutory remedies.

If you receive automated telephone calls or text messages without your prior consent, contact us to discuss your rights and remedies.