New rules from the Federal Communications Commission are scheduled to go into effect tomorrow that govern artificial voice or pre-recorded non-commercial and non-telemarketing calls made to landline telephones.
The new rules limit the number of calls to three within a 30-day period, unless the caller has the called party’s prior express consent to exceed that limit, and requiring callers to provide specific methods for called parties to opt out of receiving such calls.
Non-commercial calls include calls not made for a commercial purpose, such surveys, polls, or market research calls, and non-telemarketing calls are those where there are no advertisements or solicitation of goods and services.
To opt out, consumers must be able to either dial a telephone number — which is provided in the message — to register their do-not-call request or allow the called party to use an automated, interactive voice or key-press activated opt-out mechanism (ie, press “1” or say “stop” to no longer receive these calls).
The FCC published the final version of the guidelines in the Federal Register back in January, with the announcement that they would go into effect six months later. ACA International and trade association partners filed a petition to ask the Federal Communications Commission to reconsider certain aspects of its TCPA exemptions order, specifically call exemptions for prerecorded calls to landlines—not to affirm the three-call limit.
The FCC first announced these orders back in 2020.
Under the new rules, callers must:
- Maintain a written do-not-call list policy that is available on demand.
- Train personnel on the existence and use of the do-not-call list.
- Record and honor do-not-call requests within a “reasonable time” (defined as not exceeding 30 days).
- Provide the called party with the name of the individual caller, the name of the person or entity on whose behalf the call is being made, and a telephone number or address at which the person or entity may be contacted.
- Honor do-not-call requests made to affiliated entities if the called party would reasonably expect such a request to apply.
- Maintain a record of do-not-call requests for five (5) years
