TCPA Petition Raising Concerns for Internet Companies, Utilities, Other Industries
Groups representing numerous industries said the FCC should ignore a petition for rulemaking and declaratory ruling filed by Craig Moskowitz and Craig Cunningham, who want tougher rules for the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The two urged the FCC to change its longstanding TCPA interpretation that “prior express consent” includes implied consent resulting from a party’s providing a phone number to the caller (see 1702170041).
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The Credit Union National Association said in a note to its members that changing the interpretation would reverse 25 years of FCC precedent. “Such a dramatic change would prevent credit union members from receiving important communications on their mobile phones, communications that provide critical information that consumers want and need to receive,” the group warned. “It would also likely require credit unions to make fundamental changes to their practices for obtaining consent in conformity with the TCPA’s requirements.”
The Internet Association raised a red flag on the potential effect on ride-hailing apps or travel booking websites. “A consumer expects to receive additional informational communications from the company, irrespective of the method by which those communications are distributed,” the group said in a filing in docket 02-278. “Accepting the proposal set forth in the Petition would eliminate this vital, and commonsense, indicia of consent. It would create potential liability where dialing parties communicate welcomed, time-sensitive, and even critical information regarding data security and fraud.”
The National Automobile Dealers Association urged the FCC to reject the petition. “Automobile dealers engage in extensive communication with customers via phone and text,” the group commented. “Customers are well served by, and have come to expect services such as pre-recorded phone calls or text messages that, for example, inform a service customer that their vehicle is ready to be picked up, or that a part they have ordered has arrived at the dealership parts department. These types of informational calls and texts are often most efficiently sent as prerecorded messages, and even when not prerecorded, given the very broad current interpretation of ‘autodialer,’ could be deemed to have been ‘autodialed.’”
The Edison Electric Institute, American Gas Association and National Rural Electric Cooperative Association jointly asked the FCC not to take action. Utilities “often need to contact their customers to, among other things, warn about planned or unplanned service outages; provide updates about outages or service restoration; ask for confirmation of service restoration or information about the lack of service; or warn about potential service curtailment on account of a failure to make payment,” they wrote.