On March 1, 2018, the FCC announced plans to help mobile marketers avoid TCPA liability for making calls or sending text messages to reassigned numbers.  Specifically, the Commission announced that it would consider a Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) at its next meeting on March 22, 2018.  If the NPRM is adopted at the March 22nd meeting, the industry will be invited to weigh in on the Commission’s proposal to create one or more databases to catalog telephone number disconnects so that mobile marketers and platform providers will know to cease contact with those phone numbers. 

According to a draft of the NPRM shared with the public, the Commission is considering rules that would ensure that one or more databases are available to provide comprehensive and timely information to help companies avoid reaching out to reassigned numbers.   The Commission will seek comment on the specific information that should be included in such a database and whether all carriers, including VoIP providers, should have to report information to the database. The Commission will also seek comment on whether to establish a single FCC-designated database or whether to permit private companies to compete by providing multiple alternative databases.  The Commission is also continuing to consider, and will seek comment about, whether to adopt a safe harbor to protect companies from TCPA liability that utilize a reassigned numbers database.

Help Weigh in on the Proposed Rulemaking

We assume that the NPRM will be adopted at the March 22nd meeting and, as such, encourage industry participants to prepare to take advantage of the opportunity to weigh in on the proposed rulemaking and help the Commission shape a more rational policy than the one that exists today.  Contact me or any member of the TCPA Defense Force for additional information about how to file comments with the FCC on this issue.

For more information about the issue of reassigned numbers and the potential liability they create under the current rules, visit:

 

 

 

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