Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ADVERTISING NEWS: Senate Dems warn FCC against weakening telemarketing rules, (May 15, 2015)

By Brian Hammond,TR Daily

Ten Senate Democrats wrote yesterday to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler urging him not to scale back restrictions on the use of autodialers to make unsolicited calls to consumers.

Sens. Edward J. Markey (D., Mass.), Charles Schumer (N.Y.), Ron Wyden (Ore.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), and Al Franken (Minn.) signed the letter urging the FCC to maintain the Telephone Consumer Protection Act's privacy protections.

The Senators raised concerns about the FCC's consideration of a rule change to provide "exemptions from liability when auto-dialers are used to make three calls to a person who has not provided consent." The FCC also is "evaluating whether to allow industries to send up to three unsolicited texts or calls per day without consent in certain circumstances," the Senators wrote. "These proposals would threaten privacy and result in an increase in disruptive and annoying calls for American consumers.

"Current law already permits industries to make unsolicited calls to consumers so long as the consumer's number is manually dialed," they added. "Additionally, companies can auto-dial a consumer's phone number with a consumer's consent. Accordingly, there is no need to make the proposed changes to the TCPA."

Consumers "already believe they receive too many unwanted calls and texts," the Senators wrote. They noted that the Federal Trade Commission has reported more than three million telemarketing complaints and the FCC has reported more than 100,000 "in recent years." The potential changes "could make matters worse," they said. "We strongly urge the FCC to maintain the TCPA's privacy protections and to continue to protect consumers from unwanted calls."

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