Thune, Markey File Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., led filing Friday of the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act (S-3655) to combat illegal robocall scams. Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., is a…
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co-sponsor. S-3655 would increase FCC authority, allowing the agency to levy civil penalties of up to $10,000 per call when the caller intentionally flouts the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The bill extends to three years the window for civil enforcement. The agency also would be required to begin a rulemaking to help protect subscribers from receiving unwanted calls or texts from callers using unauthenticated numbers. S-3655 would require carriers adopt call authentication technologies that allow them to verify an incoming call is legitimate. “Existing civil penalty rules were designed to impose penalties on lawful telemarketers who make mistakes,” Thune said. “We need do more to separate enforcement of carelessness and other mistakes from more sinister actors.” S-3655 “emphasizes the importance of reintroducing trust to the caller ID framework, while strengthening the ability of industry traceback efforts, including those led by USTelecom’s Industry Traceback Group,” said USTelecom Vice President-Law and Policy Kevin Rupy. Consumer Reports, Consumer Federation of America and the National Consumer Law Center backed the bill.