Thune, Markey Refile Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act
Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., refiled their Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (Traced) Act Thursday to combat illegal robocall scams. S-151, originally filed in November, would increase FCC authority, allowing the…
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agency to levy civil penalties of up to $10,000 per call when the caller intentionally flouts the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The bill would extend 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-151 would require carriers to adopt call authentication technologies that allow them to verify an incoming call is legitimate. The legislation “holds those people who participate in robocall scams and intentionally violate telemarketing laws accountable and does more to proactively protect consumers who are potential victims,” Thune said. “To address the scourge of calls, we need a simple formula: call authentication, blocking, and enforcement, and this legislation achieves all three,” Markey said. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr tweeted his praise for the senators' “leadership in helping to crack down on illegal robocalls that not only interrupt our daily lives but seek to defraud millions of Americans. Their bill addresses an issue that leads all consumer complaints at the FCC each year.” Many stakeholders lauded the bill, including AT&T, Consumer Federation of America and other consumer groups and associations, CTIA, NTCA, USTelecom and Verizon.