Joint Trades Comment on FCC TCPA Noticed of Proposed Rulemaking TCPA
Earlier this week, the American Financial Services Association joined the American Bankers Association, Mortgage Bankers Association, National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions, National Council of Higher Education Resources, and Student Loan Servicing Alliance in a comment letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the FCC proposes to codify and, in certain respects, expand its 2015 ruling that consumers who provide prior express consent under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) to receive autodialed or prerecorded voice calls or text messages may revoke consent through “any reasonable means.”
The provisions that the FCC proposes to codify are broad and ambiguous, making it difficult for businesses to ensure that they are correctly following the guidelines while avoiding harm to their customers. The letter from the joint trade groups offers several suggestions for improving the proposed rule. Some of the suggestions include:
- The FCC should establish and publicize a standardized set of words like “STOP,” “QUIT,” “END,” or “UNSUBSCRIBE” that, if used, would create a presumption that the revocation attempt is reasonable.
- The FCC should state in the regulatory text that, absent a clear expression by the consumer to the contrary, a single revocation applies only to the type of information in the original call or text message (e.g., past-due notices concerning a specific account).
- The FCC should adopt a six-business day requirement for callers to process revocation requests and requests to be added to the caller’s company specific do-not-call list.
- If the proposed changes are finalized, the FCC should provide at least 18 months for companies to implement the changes.
August 3rd, 2023
