TCPA Regulations Continue to Allow Political Robocalls

Bob Bentz    Robo Calls     political, robocalls

Additional laws have been added to the TCPA, but political robocalls are not effected and will be an important part of the 2012 election year

On February 15, 2012, the FCC passed new regulations that add to the protections invoked by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA).  If you’ve ever tried to read these things, you likely know why it’s sat on my desk for four months before writing this blog post.

The new regulations offers consumers greater protection against unwanted autodialed or prerecorded telemarketing calls known as voice broadcast or robocalls.

Of course, you should not rely on this post for legal advice.  Always consult with your own attorney for legal advice.  Legal disclaimer aside, here is a summary of the rules and regulations that have been added.

• Prior express written consent is required for all autodialed or prerecorded telemarketing calls to wireless numbers or landlines.
• The established business relationship exemption is removed.
• Call recipients must have the ability to opt-out of future robocalls during the robocall itself.
• Prerecorded calls to residential lines made by health care-related entities governed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 are exempt from the rulings.
• No changes are made to reduce the ability to use robocalls for prerecorded messages for tax-exempt non-profit organizations, political robocalls, or calls for non-commercial purposes such as school closings.
• Calls to wireless phones, however, still have to obtain prior written permission if the robocalls are made on behalf of non-profits, politicals, or information only purposes.
• Prerecorded voice broadcast calls must state the identity of the business, individual, or other entity responsible for making the call at the beginning of the message.  A telephone number of the entity making the calls must be provided at some point during the call.

FCC Enhances Prohibitions Against Business Robocalls to Consumers

Bob Bentz    Telemedia     2012, fcc, robocalls, telemarketing

The FCC has furthered enhanced the 1991 TCPA rules.

The FCC has enhanced the strength of the 1991 TCPA by requiring a written opt-in from all businesses wanting to use telemarketing. The problem is that with VOIP, calls can be made from virtually anywhere in the world for almost no cost. While limitations can be made on domestic businesses, there is virtually nothing that can be done to prevent international VOIP telemarketing calls to our phones.

Not saying that this is a bad law in preventing unwanted robocalls to consumers, but there’s simply no way to stop the international VOIP companies that will be pummeling our landline and mobile phones.

http://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-strengthens-consumer-protections-against-telemarketing-robocalls-0

There are no changes to the rules that permit non-profits and political candidates from making robocalls to USA consumers.  Don’t you love that the people who make the laws carved out themselves and the non-profits from the original robocalls legislation.

As they say in England:  “brilliant.”

Rules for Political Telemarketing

Bob Bentz    IVR     political, robocalls, telemarketing, text message marketing, voice broadcast

It is a big election year and many political candidates will be using our voice broadcast, or “robocalls,” to reach voters.  The question came up as to how the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 fits in with political candidates.  You probably know that political candidates are given more leeway when it comes to outbound telemarketing without a bonafied opt-in.

Under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, politicians and campaign volunteers may call voters on their landline or wireless phones. But when a campaign uses an auto dialer to leave a “robocall” (precorded message), calls to wireless phones are prohibited.  In short, it is:

• legal for a campaign to call voters on their landline phones using an auto dialer to leave a robocall without the “prior express consent of the called party.”
• illegal for a campaign to contact voters using to use auto dialers and robocalls to their cellphones without prior express consent.

The same rules apply to text messages.  It is:

• legal for campaign workers to send texts to voters’ cellphones.  For this service, political candidates can use text message marketing services such as84444.com.

To learn more about TCPA, please visit the FCC’s websites on telemarketing andSPAM texts.

Please do not consider this legal advice.  You should consult your own attorneys to get your own legal opinion.