Safe Harbor

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Congress Proposes TCPA Bill That Would Change ATDS Definition

A group of seven Democratic members of the House of Representatives recently introduced a new bill to amend the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The bill is titled the Robotext Scam Prevention Act. Its provisions include:

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Wrong Numbers Are a TCPA Risk

Wrong numbers sometimes take a backseat to reassigned numbers when discussing Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) risks. But they represent a similar sort of risk without counterbalancing features like the Reassigned Numbers Database (RND) and its associated safe harbor. Understanding why wrong numbers serve as a source of TCPA risk and implementing measures to mitigate that risk are essential parts of TCPA compliance.

One Year Later: Tracking the Implementation of the TRACED Act

December 30, 2020 marks the one year anniversary of President Donald Trump signing the Pallone-Thune TRACED Act into law. The law, whose name is an acronym for Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence, is the first major federal telemarketing legislation in more than a decade.

TCPA vs. DNC

Telemarketing compliance is made difficult by the byzantine nature of telemarketing regulations. Any marketer can be forgiven for struggling to keep track of the varying levels of laws, regulatory agencies, and other enforcement mechanisms. However, there are two acronyms that loom large enough in the regulatory landscape that everybody knows them, even if they don’t really understand what they mean: TCPA and DNC.

FCC Approves Safe Harbors for Phone Companies Who Block Calls

As part of its ongoing efforts to implement the TRACED Act, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved new safe harbors for phone companies that implement call blocking technologies.

How to Effectively Make Use of Telemarketing Safe Harbor Provisions

In the context of telemarketing, Safe Harbor is often a subject of confusion. This is unfortunate as understanding Safe Harbor and the multilayered rules and statutes that govern it is essential to successful compliance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), and both state and federal Do Not Call (DNC) Lists.

Court Rules In Favor of TCPA Defendant Claiming Previous Subscriber’s Consent

A district court ruled that a caller could reasonably rely on the consent of a previous subscriber when calling a number that had since been recycled to another user.

FCC Delays Implementation of Recycled Number Database Until 2020

In December 2018, the FCC announced a plan to create a reassigned number database. Callers would be able to scrub their number lists against this database in order to remove any numbers that have been reassigned to new users, thus decreasing the possibility of incurring Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) violations by calling these new users.

FCC Petition Seeks Comments on Liability for Tech Errors

TCPA Petition Seeks Safe Harbor For Technical Errors

A new TCPA petition has been filed with the FCC and the agency is now seeking public comments. Outcome Health is seeking clarification on the rule that an unknowable text messaging technical error is protected from liability under the 2012 Soundbite Declaratory Ruling.

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Reassigned Phone Numbers: The "One Call" Rule Solution

At the time that this blog entry was written, the "one call" rule was a relevant solution to the problem of reassigned numbers. However, in the wake of the D.C. Circuit's 2015 decision in ACA International v. FCC, the "one call" safe harbor no longer applies. This article has since been rewritten to reflect the current safe harbor status of reassigned numbers.

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