ACA Mounts Challenge, Gathers Allies Against Proposed FCC TCPA Rule

ACA International is continuing to work with a broad coalition of interested industries and trade associations to convince the FCC to revise its proposed rule implementing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

The proposed rule requires a consumer’s written consent, accompanied by extensive disclosures, before a business may use an autodialer or prerecorded message to place a non-telemarketing call to a wireless number that the called party has provided to the business as a contact number. The proposed rule reverses two decades of Commission guidance, on which American businesses in all industries and segments of the economy have relied.

At the conclusion of the initial public comment period, which ended on May 21, over thirty-five associations and individual businesses submitted comments opposing the FCC proposed rule. Alongside these comments, over 1700 ACA members submitted comments to the FCC supporting our comments and opposing the FCC proposed rule. This popular support for ACA’s position indicates the broad-based appeal of our proposals and strongly demonstrates the need for the FCC to modify its rule.

In addition, the Federal Reserve and Departments of Education and Treasury filed comments opposing the proposed FCC rule. Each of these entities shared many of the same concerns voiced by ACA’s coalition, which include the difficulty to collect outstanding debts when creditors are unable to contact consumers regarding their payments. This kind of statement of disapproval within the government is a strong signal to the FCC that their efforts to protect consumers are misguided.

Associations within ACA’s coalition submitted an ex parte letter to the FCC highlighting the proposed rule’s restriction on businesses sending valuable, non-telemarketing messages to the increasing numbers of consumers who have agreed to be contacted at wireless devices. This is an important issue within the FCC proposed rule, and ACA is dedicated to work with other concerned associations and companies to ensure this rule is never enacted.