Noting that some 35 million telephone numbers are disconnected and made available for reassignment to consumers annually, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) took a further step last Thursday to address the “problem of unwanted calls to reassigned numbers.” The problem with these calls already is well known to businesses that rely on phone calls or text messages to communicate with their customers: a caller places a call or sends a text to a number for which it has previously obtained the necessary consent, only to find out later that the number has since been reassigned to someone else (who has not provided consent). The FCC declared in the Declaratory Ruling and Order of July 2015 (“2015 Declaratory Ruling”) that these calls may violate the TCPA, although it also created a limited safe harbor for a single call or message made post-reassignment
Continue Reading Reassigned Numbers: Sailing Towards A New TCPA “Safe Harbor?”
FCC Bureau Asks for Comments on the Treatment of Calls to Mortgage Borrowers Affected by Hurricanes
The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is asking for comments on a petition filed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) requesting clarification or a declaratory ruling under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) as to communications from mortgage servicers to borrowers affected by natural disasters. The FHFA’s petition, which was filed on November 15, 2017 and requests an “expedited response,” makes two specific requests.
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FCC Opens the Door to Blocking Spoofed Robocalls that Violate the TCPA
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted last week new rules that signal a new approach to tackling calls that violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). In its first rulemaking dealing with the TCPA under Chairman Ajit Pai, the FCC is removing barriers that prevent telecommunications providers from blocking calls that presumably violate the TCPA because they misleadingly appear to originate from telephone numbers that should not be originating calls at all.
Continue Reading FCC Opens the Door to Blocking Spoofed Robocalls that Violate the TCPA