Who stands to bear the costs of a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) lawsuit? If you have to ask, the answer is probably, “You do.” Any business that conducts a significant amount of telephone solicitations is at risk of running afoul of the TCPA. Even non-marketing calls can trigger TCPA liability.

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.

Both telemarketing and debt collection are, quite literally, risky businesses. Both fields are highly regulated, governed by complex legislation, and subject to potentially expensive penalties and litigation. Compliance in either field is complicated enough on its own but compliance for debt collectors who use telephone solicitation in order to conduct their business imposes difficulties to an extent beyond the mere sum of the complexities of either field on its own.

This article covers some of the most frequently used techniques by litigators, the sorts of businesses that they target, and some of the most prominent and illustrative TCPA judgments and settlements.

There is an assumption that Do Not Call (DNC) and Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) regulations do not apply to real estate agents because they are independent contractors. Big businesses are often seen in the spotlight for violating these statutes and individuals may think that their actions will go unnoticed by Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulators. These assumptions are false. Compliance is mandatory for real estate agents.

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.