By Neil Ende, Managing Partner at Technology Law Group
No one likes being accosted by cold calls during dinner—a fact that the Do Not Call List meant to support. That list allows consumers to register their number as off-limits to telemarketers. However; many marketers have gotten around the issue by using robo-calls, which, by not involving live human beings, have been a bit of a loophole for marketers.
The FCC is now planning to address this. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has issued a proposal that will tighten rules around robo-calling.
The proposal includes: (i) clarifying that the use of robo-call blocking technologies does not violate the FCC’s call-completion rules, (ii) allowing consumers to revoke consent to receive robo-calls through any reasonable means and without filling out a form, (iii) defining an “autodialer” to be any technology with the capacity to dial random or sequential numbers, thereby hindering the ability of telemarketers to exploit definitional loopholes and (iv) closing the “reassigned number” loophole to make it clear that consumers who inherit a phone number will not be subject to unwanted robo-calls consented to by the previous owner of the number.
While the Chairman’s full proposal is not yet publicly available, he has circulated it to the other FCC commissioners for their review ahead of the FCC’s June 18, 2015 open meeting, when a vote on the proposal is scheduled.
If approved by the FCC, the proposal would become effective upon public release. We will continue to monitor these issues and report when more details are provided.
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