FCC moves to protect consumers from robocalls
20 Jun 2015
The Federal Communications Commission yesterday adopted a new standard that removed any doubt that consumer's phone carriers might block ''unwanted robocalls and spam texts.''
The FCC affirmed consumers' rights to control the calls they received, in a release.
The release said the FCC ended any vague legal questions making it clear that telephone companies faced no legal barriers in allowing consumers to choose to use robocall-blocking technology.
The rulings follow consumer complaints about robocalls received by the FCC each month. The FCC said complaints regarding unwanted calls were the largest category of complaints received by the FCC, numbering over 215,000 in 2014.
The action on Thursday came in response to around two dozen petitions and other requests that ''sought clarity'' on how the FCC interpreted the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, ''closing loopholes and strengthening consumer protections already on the books.
''I detest robocalls. I'm not alone,'' said Jessica Rosenworcel, one of three Democrats on the Federal Communications Commission who approved the measure Thursday over Republican objections, Los Angeles Times reported.
''It's time - long past time - to do something about this,'' she said.
The two Republican commissioners, Michael O'Reilly and Ajit Pai, even as they agreed that robocalls were annoying, said the new rules would make it more difficult for businesses to provide services and information to their customers and could lead to an increase in class-action lawsuits under the 1991 Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
According to FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, telemarketers had used new technology to get around restrictions in the law. The agency received around 215,000 consumer complaints last year about robocalls, more than on any other issue.
He said there was a simple concept in the statute that the FCC embraced, one cannot be called unless one consented to be called. He added the consumer needed to be in control.
The new regulations would allow consumers to stop robocalls by simply telling the caller ''in any reasonable way, at any time'' to stop calling.
Companies often had required written notification to stop calls.
