Advanced Methods to Target and Eliminate Unlawful Robocalls, Fourth Report and Order, CG Docket no. 17-59, FCC 20-187

Unwanted and illegal robocalls have long been the Federal Communication Commission’s (“Commission”) top source of consumer complaints and one of the Commission’s top consumer protection priorities. In 2019, Congress passed the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act. In addition to directing the Commission to mandate adoption of caller ID authentication technology and encourage voice service providers to block calls by establishing safe harbors, the TRACED Act directs the Commission to ensure that both consumers and callers are provided with transparency and effective redress when calls are blocked in error. In the Call Blocking Fourth Report and Order, the Commission took several steps to better protect consumers from unwanted and illegal robocalls, and implement the TRACED Act. The Commission expanded the existing safe harbor for blocking of calls, established affirmative requirements to ensure that voice service providers better police their networks against illegal calls, and adopted several transparency and redress requirements to ensure that erroneous blocking can be quickly identified and remedied. The Commission has eliminated one rule that was previously included in this information collection. The Commission previously required voice service providers to take steps to effectively mitigate illegal traffic when notified of such traffic by the Commission under 47 CFR § 64.1200(n)(2). That rule required providers to respond to the Commission.

The latest form for Advanced Methods to Target and Eliminate Unlawful Robocalls, Fourth Report and Order, CG Docket no. 17-59, FCC 20-187 expires 2027-09-30 and can be found here.