How 184 Calls Turned Into a 2.9 Million Dollar Fine

[GoCubsGo]

Below taken from:
Contact Center Compliance Beacon

How 184 Calls Turned Into a 2.9 Million Dollar Fine

Two recent FCC actions demonstrate the need to be scrubbing against cell phone numbers in real time with a verified TCPA compliance provider.

On May 8, 2014, the FCC announced that it plans on fining Dialing Services, LLC, $2,944,000 for allegedly making numerous illegal robocalls to mobile phones. These robocalls contained artificial or prerecorded voice messages on behalf of political campaigns and candidates. The Commission had previously cited Dialing Services for making more than 4.7 million robocalls to mobile phones without consumer permission during the 2012 election cycle. Keep in mind that the $2.9 million penalty comes as a result of only 184 violations of the FCC’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) (184 violations x $16,000 per violation = $2,944,000).

If you think that is a lot of money, on May 16, 2014, Sprint agreed to pay a record 7.5 million dollars to resolve an investigation by the FCC regarding Sprint’s failure to honor some of its consumers’ do-not-call or do-not-text preferences. Some of these violations were attributed to human errors and technical malfunctions.

These two cases demonstrate that the FCC is prepared to hold businesses accountable for violating the TCPA. At $16,000 per violation, that is no laughing matter. As everyone in the industry should now be aware, it is a violation to call any cell phone number using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice, without the appropriate consent. If you do not have this consent, you need to be scrubbing out cell phone numbers with a reliable compliance partner. Otherwise, your business may soon find itself staring down the barrel of an FCC investigation.

 

[VolAgent]

I thought politicians were exempt from the TCPA and DNC?

 

[pfg1]

My home and cell are on the dnc list. I still get multiple calls every week. Credit card offers and political calls the most, among others. I'd like to capitalize on that $16k per call fine personally.

 

[GoCubsGo]

I thought politicians were exempt from the TCPA and DNC?

I saw that and thought the same thing. Could it be that they can call land lines that are on the DNC but not cell phones?

 

[VolAgent]

I saw that and thought the same thing. Could it be that they can call land lines that are on the DNC but not cell phones?

You really think politicians put that limit on themselves? I bet there is more to this.

Most you see, there were thousands and thousands of calls before the FTC or FCC did anything. But suddenly 184 calls get action from them?

 

[Justin Bilyj]

You really think politicians put that limit on themselves? I bet there is more to this.

Most you see, there were thousands and thousands of calls before the FTC or FCC did anything. But suddenly 184 calls get action from them?

Is FCC pulling an IRS and going after rightwing groups and politicians?

 

[unic.consulting]

I saw that and thought the same thing. Could it be that they can call land lines that are on the DNC but not cell phones?

FCC to Fine Online Co. $2.9M for Political Robocalls to Cell Phones | FCC.gov

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act, enacted by Congress in 1991, outlaws robocalls to mobile phones
except in two limited circumstances: (1) calls made for emergency purposes, or (2) calls made with the prior
express consent of the called party. There is no general exception for political calls to mobile phones.

 

[Josh]

I thought politicians were exempt from the TCPA and DNC?

DNC yes, cell phones no. Same thing with surveys. Within some groups this is a real issue because it hampers there ability to get statistically meaningful information the way it's been generally accepted to be the most reliable.

 

[VolAgent]

DNC yes, cell phones no. Same thing with surveys. Within some groups this is a real issue because it hampers there ability to get statistically meaningful information the way it's been generally accepted to be the most reliable.

I would anticipate a change to that very shortly. The campaign staff will be all over the politician as it is going to hamper getting out the message.

Watch them slide it in as an amendment to some bill.

 

[Josh]

Below taken from:
Contact Center Compliance Beacon

How 184 Calls Turned Into a 2.9 Million Dollar Fine

Two recent FCC actions demonstrate the need to be scrubbing against cell phone numbers in real time with a verified TCPA compliance provider.

On May 8, 2014, the FCC announced that it plans on fining Dialing Services, LLC, $2,944,000 for allegedly making numerous illegal robocalls to mobile phones. These robocalls contained artificial or prerecorded voice messages on behalf of political campaigns and candidates. The Commission had previously cited Dialing Services for making more than 4.7 million robocalls to mobile phones without consumer permission during the 2012 election cycle. Keep in mind that the $2.9 million penalty comes as a result of only 184 violations of the FCC’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) (184 violations x $16,000 per violation = $2,944,000).

If you think that is a lot of money, on May 16, 2014, Sprint agreed to pay a record 7.5 million dollars to resolve an investigation by the FCC regarding Sprint’s failure to honor some of its consumers’ do-not-call or do-not-text preferences. Some of these violations were attributed to human errors and technical malfunctions.

These two cases demonstrate that the FCC is prepared to hold businesses accountable for violating the TCPA. At $16,000 per violation, that is no laughing matter. As everyone in the industry should now be aware, it is a violation to call any cell phone number using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice, without the appropriate consent. If you do not have this consent, you need to be scrubbing out cell phone numbers with a reliable compliance partner. Otherwise, your business may soon find itself staring down the barrel of an FCC investigation.

According to at least one court ruling the powers that be aren't appeased by the defense of "my list broker said it was compliant". List Buyer Fined for Ignoring Do Not Call Regulations

Ultimately it's the marketer responsible for being compliant with all aspects of the TCPA including the DNC and not using an auto-dialer to call cell phones. It is the responsibility of the caller to prove that they had permission to use a dialer to call the cell phone, but on the other hand it would also be the responsibility of the compliant ant(s) to prove that they were in fact called using a dialer. I'm exploring the idea of offering that type of a scrubbing/validation service, but the licensing with the ported number list alone would be about a thousand bucks per customer per year before I add any of my costs to it. The whole thing is really a mess.