Rules and Regulations Implementing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) of 1991, CG Docket No. 02-278

On December 30, 2020, the Commission released an Order in CG Docket No. 02-278, FCC 20-186, to implement section 8 of the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act (TRACED Act). In doing so, the Commission amended the TCPA exemptions for artificial or prerecorded voice calls made to residential telephone lines so each satisfies the TRACED Act’s requirements to identify who can call, identify who can be called, and limit the number of calls that can be made under the exemptions. Specifically, the Commission adopted limits on the number of calls that can be made under the exemptions for non-commercial calls to a residence, commercial calls to a residence that do not include an advertisement or constitute telemarketing, tax-exempt nonprofit organization calls to a residence, and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-related calls to a residence. In addition, the Commission required exempted callers to have mechanisms in place to allow consumers to opt out of any future calls. On December 18, 2023 the Commission released an Order in CG Dockets No. 21-402 and 02-278, FCC 23-107, to better protect consumers from unwanted and illegal calls and texts. Specifically, the Commission made it unequivocally clear that texters and callers must obtain a consumer’s prior express written consent to robocall or robotext the consumer soliciting their business, from one seller at a time, and prohibited abuse of consumer consent by comparison shopping and other websites. In addition to the one-to-one consent requirement, the Commission also required that the consent must be in response to a clear and conspicuous disclosure to the consumer and that the content of the ensuing robotexts and robocalls must be logically and topically associated with the website where the consumer gave consent. The TCPA and the Commission’s existing rules already place the burden of proof on the texter or caller to prove that they have obtained consent that satisfies federal laws and regulations. This new information collection does not change that requirement but may create a burden for website operators, including lead generators and comparison shopping sites, to modify their sites to ensure that consent is properly collected. On February 16, 2024, the Commission released an Order in CG Docket No. 02-278, FCC 24-24, to implement new and modified rules to strengthen consumers’ ability to revoke consent to unwanted robocalls and robotexts. Specifically, the Commission codified new rules to make clear that revocation of consent can be made in any reasonable manner and modified existing rules to require that callers honor do-not-call and consent revocation requests within a reasonable time not to exceed 10 business days of receipt; and modified the exemption that allows package delivery notification robocalls and robotexts without consent to require that opt-out requests be honored within a reasonable time not to exceed six business days. Many of the requirements codified in this Order have been adopted in rulings dating back many years or even decades.

The latest form for Rules and Regulations Implementing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) of 1991, CG Docket No. 02-278 expires 2027-09-30 and can be found here.

Rules and Regulations Implementing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, CG Docket No. 02-278

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