Dominic Rivera  |  April 23, 2014

Category: Consumer News

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iStock-TCPA-Phone-CallThe Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) was enacted in 1991 because of consumer complaints on unwanted solicitation calls on homes. Over the years, interpretation of the law has changed to include robocalls, text messages, junk faxes and calls to mobile phones.

Now comes another disruption on how the law should be interpreted when Michael O’Reilly, a commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), wrote in a March 25 blog post that the TCPA needs clarification.

O’Reilly reasons that while TCPA lawsuits increased by more than 30 percent last year, several dozen petitions have also been submitted to the FCC in search of clarification.

“As a result, the rules have become complex and unclear. In addition to prohibiting abusive robocalls and junk faxes, which was the original intent, the rules are creating situations where consumers might not receive notifications and offers that they want and expect, and where new and innovative services and applications that help friends and family members communicate with each other could be restricted. Clear rules of the road would benefit everyone,” O’Reilly said.

The commissioner also encouraged the FCC to take a look at its own precedent because some the Commission’s prior interpretations of the TCPA, “while well-meaning, may have contributed to the complexity by enlarging the scope of potential violations.”

Reactions to the blog post came from both ends.

Consumer advocates are concerned that clarifications on the law would limit the scope of the TCPA and make it less useful for consumer protection.

Scott Nelson, an attorney at Public Citizen, a Washington, D.C. consumer advocacy group, said that he was surprised by the commissioner’s blog post. He hopes that the position of O’Reilly is not shared by the entire Commission.

“I think he is sending a signal that he is amenable to giving industry a break and limiting the protection that the law gives to consumers,” Nelson said. “I am not really sure why there is any reason to do that.”

Meanwhile, Mark Schiffman, the spokesperson for the American Collectors Association, a group that represents debt collectors and creditors argued that attorneys used the absence of clarity to file TCPA lawsuits against debt collectors who were trying to contact debtors. He contends that there is a need to clarify the law from the FCC that the TCPA should not apply to debt collectors because the law itself was enacted with telemarketers in mind.

Schiffman is also hoping for the FCC to clarify the definition of what an autodialer is.

“The FCC has not fully weighed in on what does and does not constitute an autodialer under the TCPA, so it has been left to the courts on how best to interpret the law’s definitions, and there are varying interpretations,” he said.

Commissioner O’Reilly may have triggered an intense discussion on what should be covered by the TCPA.

 

File a TCPA Class Action Lawsuit Today

In the meantime, if you received an unsolicited text message or cell phone call from an automated dialing machine, you have legal options. Please visit the Text Message Spam Cellphone TCPA Class Action Lawsuit Investigation. There, you can submit your claim for a free legal review and if it qualifies for legal action, a seasoned TCPA lawyer will contact you for a free, no-obligation consultation. You will be guided through the litigation process at no out-of-pocket expenses or hidden fees. The TCPA attorneys working this investigation do not get paid until you do.

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