FCC Faces Pushback on Robocalling Ruling Set for Vote Next Week
Questions are being raised at the FCC on parts of the robocalling declaratory ruling, set for a commissioner vote June 6 (see 1905150041). The biggest questions are about the decision to press forward without seeking comment on what some see as a vague “reasonable analytics” standard for blocking even lawful calls, said lawyers involved in the proceeding. Consumer groups hope the FCC will approve the ruling.
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“The FCC is really trying to help consumers with this item, but filings in the docket are raising a variety of concerns with potential side effects from the draft declaratory ruling,” Mark Brennan of Hogan Lovells told us. This suggests that the FCC may want to take a closer look and seek comment before taking a vote, "to make sure the decision has its intended effect,” he added. Some concepts like “reasonable analytics” and what constitutes an “unwanted call” aren’t “really spelled out,” he said: “How do health and safety calls avoid getting tripped up in this? Any lack of clarity on key issues doesn’t help anyone except scammers and fraudsters." The FCC didn’t comment.
Commissioner Brendan Carr said in an interview Wednesday he's aware of the objections raised on the declaratory ruling. Carr said robocalling hasn’t come up much on his current trip to Montana and Wyoming. “I’m full steam ahead and ready to get this next decision across the finish line,” he said. “Americans are sick and tired of robocalls and we need to be pushing forward aggressively.”
Officials with the American Bankers Association, American Association of Healthcare Administrative Management, National Association of Federally Insured Credit Unions and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform, among others, met aides to Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Brendan Carr about their concerns, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 17-59. The rules “could harm consumers by resulting in the erroneous blocking of lawful calls,” the groups said: “Public safety alerts, fraud alerts, data security breach notifications, healthcare reminders, and power outage updates, among others, all could be inadvertently blocked.”
Securus raised similar issues in a filing: It's "concerned that the draft Declaratory Ruling does not specify how notices must be provided to consumers in a manner that confirms consumers have actual knowledge of the potential for opt-out call blocking to result in the blocking of wanted calls.”
NTCA earlier raised questions (see 1905240031). Industry officials said more meetings at the FCC took place Wednesday.
Officials with consumer groups told us the rule isn't perfect but would help. “The issues addressed by the FCC’s latest ruling have been the subject of agency inquiry for years, so it should not come as a surprise,” said Susan Grant, director-consumer protection and privacy at the Consumer Federation of America. A reasonable analytics standard for blocking “makes sense given the need for flexibility, as long as consumers are clearly informed about what their carriers are doing and have the ability to ensure that they can get the calls they want,” Grant said: “I doubt [consumers] would be unaware for long if they were not getting legitimate health or safety calls.”
"The flood of unwanted robocalls is truly a scourge and a top consumer complaint,” which interferes with the quality of phone service, said Maureen Mahoney, policy analyst for Consumer Reports. Ensuring emergency calls, and other desired calls, aren’t “mistakenly blocked is important,” Mahoney said: “There needs to be an appropriate process to address that. But robocallers and consumers obviously do not share the same viewpoint. The primary goal is to strengthen consumers' ability to stop unwanted robocalls.”
The declaratory order “is good as far as it goes,” said Margot Saunders, senior counsel to the National Consumer Law Center. “But call blocking is not going to stop a lot of the robocalls that consumers are receiving that are causing so much trouble.”