As part of its compliance with the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act, the Federal Communications Commission announced on Friday that entities suspected of making robocalls will no longer receive a warning from the agency prior to a penalty being issued.
Prior to the enactment of the TRACED Act, the FCC was required to issue a warning before it was able to levy any fines or penalties. And the size of the fine was based on the number of violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act that occurred after the warning was sent. But Section 3 of the TRACED Act empowered the FCC to remove that requirement and be able to issue fines without first being required to issue the warning.
“Robocall scam operators don’t need a warning these days to know what they are doing is illegal, and this FCC has long disliked the statutory requirement to grant them mulligans,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, in a statement. “We have taken unprecedented action against spoofing violations in recent years and removing this outdated ‘warning’ requirement will help us speed up enforcement to protect consumers. With strong enforcement and policy changes like mandating STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication and authorizing robocall blocking, we are making real progress in our fight against fraudsters.”
The FCC’s order also increased the size of the maximum fine that the agency can assess for TCPA robocall violations to $10,000 per intentional unlawful call.
Along with removing the warning requirement, the TRACED Act also extended the statute of limitations for the FCC to investigate and take enforcement action against an entity that violated the TCPA to four years, from two.
