Protect the TCPA to Stop Unwanted Calls by Big Business

The telemarketing, debt collection and banking industries want the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to allow “wrong party” robocalls to cell phones, which will subject consumers to intrusive calls and texts if the caller obtains a number previously owned by someone else or if a debt collector associates a number with the wrong person.
More than 58,000 signatures protesting any action by the regulatory agency to allow robocalls to cell phones without consumers’ express consent were delivered to the FCC on behalf of a broad coalition of consumer groups fighting the industry proposal, which they believe would gut a key consumer and privacy law, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). Powerful industry groups, including the Chamber of Commerce, the American Bankers Association, the American Collectors Association, the Consumer Bankers Association, and others are behind the proposal.
“Americans have shown they don’t want intrusive calls,” said Linda Sherry of Consumer Action, noting that more than 223 million people have placed home and cell phones on the National Do Not Call Registry. In 2013, close to 4 million complained to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about do-not-call violations.
In January, 84 national and state civil rights, community and consumer groups joined in a letter to the FCC demanding that the commission keep these important protections for cell phone users mandated by the TCPA. In addition to the petition delivered last month, 14 U.S. senators, led by Senator Ed Markey, sent a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler urging the agency to be faithful to Congress’s intention to stop intrusive and unsolicited calls to consumer landline and mobile phones.
“We hope the FCC will listen to the will of the people,” said Sherry. Signed into law in 1991, the TCPA restricts telemarketing calls, junk faxes and the use of automated telephone equipment. “This law works—we oppose any efforts to weaken it.”