FCC Reassigned Number Database Order's Safe Harbor Puts Burden of Proof on Callers
The FCC issued a reassigned phone number database order with a safe harbor that was unanimously adopted by commissioners Wednesday (see 1812120026). The safe harbor from Telephone Consumer Protection Act liability wasn't in an initial draft but was added this…
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week. "A safe harbor will incent greater [database] usage, thereby further protecting more consumers from unwanted calls," said the order released Thursday in docket 17-59. But the commission agreed with consumer groups the safe harbor shouldn't be broadly applied to every call made by callers who use the database without regard to whether they reasonably relied on it to make the call. "Once the database becomes operational, callers that wish to avail themselves of the safe harbor must demonstrate that they appropriately checked the most recent update of the database and the database reported 'No' when given either the date they contacted that consumer or the date on which the caller could be confident that the consumer could still be reached at that number," said the order. "Callers bear the burden of proof and persuasion to show that they checked the database before making a call. The safe harbor would then shield the caller from liability should the database return an inaccurate result."