Today, more than 58,000 consumers across the nation sent a united message to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC): Do not allow robocalls to cell phones without our consent. The message was delivered in a petition from a coalition of national consumer groups (the National Consumer Law Center, National Association of Consumer Advocates, Americans for Financial Reform, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, National Consumers League, Public Citizen, and U.S. Pirg). The coalition is fighting an industry proposal that would gut a key consumer and privacy law: the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
The telemarketing, debt collection, and banking industries want the FCC to allow “wrong party” robocalls to cell phones, which will subject innocent bystanders to intrusive calls and texts if the caller obtains a number previously owned by someone else or if a debt collector associates a number with the wrong person. “The ‘wrong number’ exemption would gut the law and permit relentless, unauthorized robocalls to your cell phone. Instead, companies can use technology and other measures to weed out numbers that have been transferred and to ensure they are calling the person who gave consent for robocalls,” said Margot Saunders, counsel to the National Consumer Law Center.
The Chamber of Congress, along with the American Bankers Association, the American Collectors Association, Consumer Bankers Association, and other powerful industry groups are behind the proposal. “Americans have made clear they do not want intrusive calls and we hope the FCC’s response is not to roll back the regulations intended to curb these abuses,” said National Association of Consumer Advocates Legislative Director Ellen Taverna. More than 223 million people have placed their home and cell phones on the National Do Not CallRegistry, and in 2013, nearly 4 million complained to the FTC for do-not-call violations.
In January, 83 national and state civil rights, community, and consumer groups sent a letter to the FCC demanding that the commission keep the important protections for cell phone users, as mandated by the TCPA. In addition to the petition delivered today, 14 U.S. senators, led by Senator Ed Markey, recently sent a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler urging the FCC to be faithful to Congress’s intention to stop intrusive and unsolicited calls to consumer landline and mobile phones.
See U.S. Senators’ letter to FCC (January 28, 2015)
See advocates’ joint letter to FCC (January 14, 2015)