FCC Shouldn’t Restrict Robocalls to Wireless Phones, Some Telcos, Associations Say
The FCC is considering comments in a rulemaking on robocalls. The commission is proposing changes to its rules under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and it intends to harmonize “TCPA rules with the FTC’s recently amended Telemarketing Sales Rule,” the commission said in the notice. The FCC is considering adopting the FTC’s rule, which would require companies to obtain prior express written consent from consumers before transmitting prerecorded messages to them.
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The commission received overall support for its efforts to protect consumers from unwanted calls, but some telcos, associations and other businesses are concerned about prerecorded calls made to wireless numbers. Under the TCPA, the FCC allows prerecorded calls to wireless numbers as long as the calls “are not charged to the called party subject to conditions necessary to protect consumers’ privacy rights.” But some commenters say the proposed rules go beyond the FTC’s rules, which only apply to outbound telemarketing calls.
Without prior written consent, “the commission’s proposed rule would prohibit all live calls made with an automatic dialer and non-telemarketing prerecorded calls to the specific number a customer provided to reach him or her … if that number happens to be a wireless number,” USTelecom said. Obtaining written or electronic consent from existing customers would be extremely costly and difficult for USTelecom members, the association said.
Sprint Nextel agrees that the proposed rules would create barriers to providing customers with account-related information. Because many customers don’t have landline phones, “by providing their wireless number as their primary point of contact, most people would expect to receive these types of communications without having to provide additional consent.”
Obtaining written consent from wireless consumers “may have unintended consequences,” the Federal Reserve Board said. The FCC should “exempt calls made for non-telemarketing purposes to cellular or wireless telephone numbers from the requirements to obtain a consumer’s written prior express consent.” The board also offered to help the commission adopt a rule that “ensures consumers are not subjected to unsolicited and unwanted telemarketing calls, but that does not unduly restrict financial institutions’ ability to contact consumers quickly and efficiently in other circumstances that may benefit the consumer."
There is “no basis in the record for adoption of a rule that will profoundly degrade the ability of consumers to continue to enjoy the benefits of the wireless revolution, with its ability to connect them seamlessly with businesses and organizations that need to reach them with vital communications,” said the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Business Coalition on E-Commerce & Privacy and other business associations. The American Teleservices Association urged the FCC to declare that “consumers who provide their cell phone numbers to entities in the course of their business relationships expressly consent to be called by them on their cell phones, regardless of the underlying purpose of the calls.”