In a 6-3 ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the Supreme Court overturned decades-old precedent set in Chevron v. National Resources Defense Council, known as the “Chevron deference.” Chevron deference required that when a federal statute is ambiguous on a topic under review by a court, and a federal agency has issued a reasonable interpretation of that topic, the court must follow the agency’s interpretation, even if the court disagrees with it. The impact of this ruling cannot be overstated. Chevron deference was one of the most important administrative law principles over the pa ..read more

As most businesses are aware, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) requires businesses to secure “prior express written consent” (PEWC) before making telemarketing calls using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice in most circumstances. Several months ago, the FCC announced updates to the requirements for PEWC. In its order, the FCC highlighted that PEWC obtained electronically needed to meet all the requirements of the E-SIGN Act. With this emphasis, a question emerged: “May PEWC be validly obtained verbally on a recorded call?” A federal court ha ..read more

The TCPA has always prohibited initiating a telephone call using an “artificial or prerecorded voice” without prior express written consent (PEWC) unless the call is made for “emergency purposes.” Today the FCC clarified through its Declaratory Ruling that an artificial or prerecorded voice includes an artificial intelligence voice. For compliance purposes, most companies are already treating AI calls the same as a prerecorded message, so the Ruling will have little impact on their business. For those that have not, the practical effect is that all call campaigns using AI to place te ..read more

On Monday, January 29th, U.S. Representative Frank Pallone (D-NJ) introduced the “Do Not Disturb Act,” a bill that would strengthen the FTC’s and FCC’s robocall enforcement regime. Most notably, the bill would replace the TCPA’s definition of an “automatic telephone dialing system” (ATDS) with a new term, “robocall,” defined to include calls made and text messages sent (1) using equipment that makes calls or sends text messages without substantial human intervention to stored telephone numbers or telephone numbers generated by a random or sequential number generator, or (2) using an artificial ..read more

The FCC’s Prior Express Written Consent rule revisions to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) were published in the Federal Register on Friday, January 26th, which means the revisions will become effective on January 27th, 2025.  The revisions include: Prior express written consent (PEWC) must be obtained on a one-to-one basis. Lead generation forms will not be able to list several sellers in a single consent form or use “marketing partners” hyperlinks to obtain consent for multiple sellers. Calls and texts must be logically and topically related to the website where the co ..read more

The U.S. Supreme Court released an order yesterday denying a request that the Court review a decision reached in the case Brickman v. Meta. Brickman v. Meta was decided by the Ninth Circuit Court, which reviewed the question of whether an autodialer as defined by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), known as an “automatic telephone dialing system” (ATDS), must use a random or sequential number generator (RSNG) to actually generate the telephone numbers that are dialed. The Ninth Circuit court held that, yes, the dialer must actually use the RSNG to generate a list of telephone numbers ..read more

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) unanimously approved its Second Report and Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on September 21st. This proposed rulemaking would provide guidelines for VoIP providers to access phone numbers. This rule would require VoIP providers make additional robocall-related certifications, similar to carriers, which would include the following attestations: The applicant will not use the phone numbers obtained to knowingly transmit, encourage, assist, or facilitate illegal robocalls, illegal spoofing, or fraud; The applicant has fully complied with ST ..read more

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) unanimously approved its Second Report and Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on September 21st. This proposed rulemaking would provide guidelines for VoIP providers to access phone numbers. This rule would require VoIP providers make additional robocall-related certifications, similar to carriers, which would include the following attestations: The applicant will not use the phone numbers obtained to knowingly transmit, encourage, assist, or facilitate illegal robocalls, illegal spoofing, or fraud; The applicant has fully complied with ST ..read more

New York recently increased the civil penalties for Do Not Call Registry violations, nearly doubling them from $11,000 to $20,000 per violation. Each unlawful call is considered a violation – meaning penalties assessed for just a single calling campaign can quickly escalate to an astronomical amount. After investigation and enforcement, civil penalties can be imposed by the state’s Attorney General. This fine also applies to violations for: calling during no-call times (callable hours are between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m.); failing to provide required telemarketing disclosures; providing mislea ..read more

Last month, the Governor of Connecticut signed SB 1058 into law. Among several other topics, this far-reaching consumer protection bill modifies the state’s telemarketing statute. Like all laws, the Connecticut statute uses definitions to dictate its scope. The statute’s inconsistent use of defined and undefined terms, however, makes it challenging to ascertain which requirements apply to which types of communications. Let’s start with the following key definitions: Telephonic sales call Includes voice calls, automated dialing systems, recorded messages, soundboard technology, text messages ..read more