Changes to New York Call Recording Laws

On Monday, August 21st, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill that will require all-party consent for the recording of outbound telemarketing calls. This bill will start to be enforced immediately. Prior to this, New York was only a one-party consent state for outbound telemarketing calls, but now marketers will be subject to this new regulation. Read the full text of the bill here. Learn more about outbound telemarketing compliance. There are also a number of other telemarketing rules to be aware of before you start any telemarketing campaign.

Court of Appeals Affirms that LA Lakers Basketball Team is not Entitled to TCPA Coverage

Last Wednesday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that the Los Angeles Lakers basketball franchise is not entitled to insurance coverage for violations of the TCPA. A class action lawsuit was filed against the Lakers after they allegedly sent unauthorized marketing text messages to fans that provided their phone numbers as part of an in-game promotion. The Lakers sued their insurance provider after they denied them coverage for TCPA violations. Read more about this story here. Learn more about telemarketing to cell phones.

Federal Judge in Illinois Rules that Human Call Initiator is not an ATDS

In Arora v. Transworld Systems Inc., Plaintiff Ashok Arora alleged that Transworld Systems Inc. (TSI) made 12 unsolicited calls to his cell phone using an autodialer. TSI filed a motion for summary judgement, arguing that their system requires call by call human intervention and therefore is not considered an autodialer under the TCPA. The Court granted TSI's motion. Read a copy of the opinion here. What else is important to know about autodialer compliance? What is an autodialer?

FTC Announces Refunds to Victims of Alleged Tech Support Scheme

The FTC announced today that they will be sending out notices to consumers who are eligible for a partial refund from Advanced Tech Support (ATS). According to the FTC complaint, ATS allegedly "used high-pressure sales pitches to market tech support products and services by falsely claiming that people’s computers were infected with viruses and malware." The defendants have agreed to settle with the FTC and pay out $10 million in refunds. Read the full press release here.

Court of Appeals Rules in Plaintiff's Favor in Significant Robins V. Spokeo Case

In a case that has been closely monitored by many in the direct marketing industry, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed true to its original decision and reversed the district court's dismissal of Robins's allegations against Spokeo. This case had made it to the U.S. Supreme Court where it was remanded after a ruling was given that the 9th Circuit Court had failed to show enough evidence for concrete injury.

Robins alleged that Spokeo willfully violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and caused him concrete injuries for the purposes of Article III standing, which requires that there be an injury that is "real" and not "abstract" or merely "procedural." This specific allegations in this case were that Spokeo published an inaccurate report about Robins on it's website.

On remand, the panel of the 9th Circuit Court stayed true to its original decision and held that "Robins alleged inaccuracies by Spokeo concerning his age, marital status, educational background, and employment history that could be deemed a real harm to his employment prospects." Additionally, the panel rejected Spokeo's argument that Robins's allegations of harm were "too speculative to establish a concrete injury."

This case is significant for the direct marketing industry because as the number of TCPA plaintiffs continues to increase, a favorable ruling for Spokeo would establish case precedenct that will potentially help defendants argue that plaintiffs aren't suffering from any real or concrete injury from simply receiving an unwanted phone call. Read the full opinion here. Avoid headaches like the one Spokeo is facing by investing in telemarketing compliance beforehand. Consider having a telemarketing attorney perform a telemarketing compliance audit of your company.

Fees to Access National DNC List to Increase

The fees for telemarketing businesses to access the National Do Not Call Registry will increase in FY 2018. The Do-Not-Call Registry Fee Extension Act of 2007 calls for a periodic reevaluation of the fees. In FY 2018, telemarketers will pay $62 per area code, which is an increase of $1 from FY 2017. The maximum fee for all area codes nation wide will increase from $16,714 to $17021. Telemarketers will still be able to get the data for their first five area codes for free. Read more about this change at the link below. Learn more about Do Not Call Compliance and calling cell phones on the Do Not Call list.

FTC Shuts Down Alleged Work-at-Home Scheme

Bob Robinson and his companies have been charged by the FTC with allegedly violating the FTC Act and the FTC's Business Opportunity Rule. The Rule requires business opportunity sellers make certain disclosure when they communicate with consumers to help them evaluate the opportunity. It also requires that they substantiate any money-making claims. The FTC complaint alleges that Robinson falsely made promises to customers they could earn thousands of dollars by working from home without any additional skills or training.  Read the full complaint here.

Two new FCC commissioners confirmed

On August 3, 2017, the Senate confirmed new FCC commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel (D) and Brendan Carr (R). The vote to reconfirm commissioner and chairman Ajit Pai was delayed, as the Senate will likely wait until after the August recess due to democratic opposition to his reappointment.

Court of Appeals affirms summary judgement in favor of defendant in TCPA case

In Jones v. Royal Administration Services, the court of appeals held that "Royal Administration Services, Inc., could not be held vicariously liable for telemarketing violations under the TCPA for several phone calls made by telemarketers employed by All American Auto Protection, Inc., because the telemarketers were independent contractors and therefore did not act as Royal’s agents, as defined by federal common law." Read the full opinion here.

 

Court rules that texts sent to finalize transaction do not violate TCPA

In a recent district court decision, it was ruled that a text message sent to a cell phone in order to complete a transaction was not considered telemarketing. In Wick v. Twilio Inc., Plaintiff Noah Wick alleged that he received an unsolicited text message after he tried to order a free sample of a dietary supplement on a website. He received a text stating that his order was incomplete, and he needed to follow a link to finalize and place the order. The defendant filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that the plaintiff had initiated the transaction and provided his phone number as part of that process. The court agreed with the defendant's argument, ruling that the text messages were not telemarketing and that the plaintiff's provision of his cell phone number constituted telemarketing consent under the TCPA. Learn more about telemarketing to cell phones.

 

Kari's Law

The U.S. Senate recently passed "Kari's Law," which would require the ability to direct dial 911 on multi-line systems that are commonly used at hotels and large offices. Learn more about Kari's Law here.

FTC to increase frequency of robocall reporting, New FCC Fine

Last week, the FTC announced that they will be increasing the frequency that they report phone numbers suspected of being used to make illegal robocalls. The FTC receives more consumer complaints about unwanted robocalls than any other category. Nearly two million of these complaints have already been filed in 2017. In last week's announcement, the FTC stated that when they receive complaints about robocallers, the corresponding phone numbers will be reported daily to telecommunications carriers and other organizations that are working to block illegal robocalls. This change will make it even more important for businesses that use prerecorded voice messages to do everything they can to avoid and quickly resolve consumer complaints. Learn more about robocall laws.

FCC proposes $82 million fine for alleged spoofed robocalls

Just weeks after the FCC issued a $2.88 million fine against a company for allegedly making millions of robocalls using technology that enabled caller ID spoofing, a much more significant fine of $82 million has been proposed against Best Insurance Contracts for allegedly making 21 million calls using similar technology. Based on consumer complaints, the FCC subpoenaed the call records of Best Insurance Contracts and verified that the spoofed calls were made. Business owners should do everything they can to resolve consumer complaints on their own before the consumer decides to send those complaints to federal agencies. Examples of best practices include only calling with proper consent, only displaying caller ID information for numbers that the business does own, scrubbing against national and state DNC lists, and honoring all opt-out requests. Learn how to follow other telemarketing rules and set proper telemarketing compliance goals.