June 19, 2015 – The FCC voted 3 – 2 to approve the restriction of autodialers – a move that many advertisers and organizations, including the MRA (Marketing Research Association) believes will “seriously harm” the marketing, survey, and opinion research that is conducted over the phone. The FCC also gave the approval to telephone companies to block robocalls and spam text messages.

Howard Fienberg, a member and lobbyist for the MRA, stated that the majority of phone calls that many consumers complain about are already considered illegal, and the bill will do little to curb those calls, while legal autodialed calls will be blocked and rejected. This can lead to consequences for those who use autodialers to conduct research and polls amongst the public.

The newly adopted proposal now requires a company or advertiser to have expressed prior written consent in order to autodial a cell phone number, with the definition of autodialer being “any device or technology with the capabilities to dial random or sequential phone numbers”.

While the proposal has already been adopted, Republican Commissioner Michael O’Reilly stated that the definition of an autodialer is so expansive that the “FCC has to use rotary phones as an example of technology that would not be covered because the modifications needed to make an autodialer would be too extensive”. Others have pointed out that all types of devices capable of making calls, including smartphones, tablets, VoIP, and calling and texting apps will fall under the category of an “automatic telephone dialing system”. Commissioner Ajit Pai stated that because of this broad wordage, “we’re taking our focus off of telemarketing fraud and sweeping all kinds of legitimate phone calls within the TCPA”. (TCPA stands for the Telephone Consumer Protection Act)

Highlights for consumers include:

“Do Not Disturb” technology approval – Telephone companies and service providers can provide customers with robocall blocking technology and features, and can assist customers with blocking unwanted autodialer calls.

Consumers have permission to revoke their consent to receive robocalls (as well as text messages) at any time

Reassigned numbers no longer apply – If a number has been reassigned, companies and advertisers must remove the number from their call list after one call to the consumer of the new cell phone number

What calls are still allowed?

Free calls or texts with alerts regarding fraud on a consumers bank account

Medication refill reminders

Financial alerts specifically regarding the consumer

While these types of calls are still allowed, consumers have the right to opt-out of these calls and text messages at any time.

Click here to read the full press release from the FCC regarding this new proposal

FCC Approves new autodialer restrictions to protect consumers