12 Senate Democrats Urge FCC Issue Guidance Restating Telemarketer Rules
Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts and 10 other Democrats urged the FCC Monday to “issue a guidance … restating its long-held requirements” for combatting “unwanted telemarketing calls.” The Democratic lawmakers…
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“are heartened” the agency “is considering ways to curtail the number of unwanted” robocalls via its March robotext Further NPRM (see 2303160061), but the agency’s “current regulations already prohibit many of the activities that lead to the proliferation of unwanted telemarketing calls.” The FCC’s 2003 rules “for telemarketers to obtain consent for calls to lines subscribed to the Do Not Call Registry” and its 2012 regulations “governing consent to receive telemarketing calls made with an artificial or prerecorded voice or an automated telephone dialing system … clearly set out the types of protections intended by Congress to eliminate unwanted telemarketing calls,” the Democratic senators said in a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “Both of these regulations allow robocalls only if the call recipients sign a written agreement relating to calls from a single seller.” Creating new “inconsistent rules governing the same activity would be problematic,” while “issuing guidance similar to the FTC’s” recent business guidance restating its telemarketer rules would “assist telemarketers and sellers in complying with these requirements,” the lawmakers said: “This guidance should also emphasize that the obligations imposed by” the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act “apply when these agreements are entered into online.”