TCPA Remains a Swamp of Uncertainty, Needs More Advocacy, FCC's O'Rielly Says
ACA International's "substantial and justified win" in its federal court challenge of the FCC's 2015 robocalling order (see 1803160006) hasn't made the Telephone Consumer Protection Act landscape any clearer, Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said at an ACA conference Thursday, per prepared…
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remarks. With the court having rejected the agency's definition of an automatic telephone dialing system, the FCC has to re-define ATDS "in a clear and rational manner." He said it should adopt clear rules regarding revocation of consent, even though the court hadn't invalidated those standards. It said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision didn't slow growth of TCPA lawsuits that came after the 2015 order. The FCC "is not sitting on its hands unaware" of the TCPA morass "but we are a busy agency" and there needs to be greater advocacy by "everyone else caught in the TCPA spider web" to get reforms moving, he said. In the meantime, the FCC can provide some relief through dealing with various pending TCPA petitions, which would, for example, provide courts with better guidance of what constitutes an advertisement under the act, he said.