Petition to FCC Hopes to Change Certain Health Care Fax Rules Under the TCPA

A new petition has been filed with the FCC by Inovalon, Inc., a healthcare data and technology company. The petition asks the FCC to declare two things:

1. Faxes sent by a health insurance plan’s designee to a patient’s medical provider, pursuant to an established business relationship between the health plan and provider, requesting patient medical records are not advertisements under the TCPA; and
2. Faxes that offer the free collection and/or digitization of patient medical records, and which do not offer any commercially available product or service to the recipients are not advertisements under the TCPA.

Read a copy of the petition here. Learn about telemarketing rules and telemarketing compliance. Contact a telemarketing attorney or TCPA lawyer if you need additional legal counsel.

Telephone Dialing System Found Not to be an ATDS

In Ferrer v. Bayview Loan Servicing, LLC, plaintiff Maria Ferrer alleged, among other things, that Bayview used an ATDS to call her cell phone 44 times. The Southern District of Florida has found that the system used by Bayview to make the calls to the plaintiff was not an Automatic Telephone Dialing System (ATDS) because it requires call-by-call human intervention. The system used by the defendants was the Avaya X1 platform. Read the court's order granting summary judgment in favor of the defendants here. Learn more about the ATDS definition and Robocall laws.

Zacks Investment Research Inc. Settles TCPA Class Action Settlement

Zacks Investment Management Inc. (Zacks Investment) has agreed to settle a TCPA class action lawsuit for $5.38 million. The plaintiffs in the case alleged that Zacks Investment and their marketing partners made unsolicited calls to consumers in order to sell books and seminar tickets. They also allege that Zacks Investments recorded calls with California consumers without their consent, which is a violation of the California Invasion of Privacy Act. Marketers should make sure that they have the proper consent to make and record marketing phone calls to consumers. Read more here. Contact a telemarketing attorney or TCPA lawyer if you need additional legal consulting to help with the TCPA lawsuit you are facing.

Florida Bill Would Classify Ringless Voicemail Drops as Telephone Solicitations

A proposed Florida bill would regulate ringless voicemail by expanding the definition of a "telephonic sales call" to include "voicemail transmissions." As defined in the bill, "voicemail transmissions" are "technologies that deliver a voice message directly to a voicemail application, service, or device." Read the full text of the bill here. Learn about additional telemarketing rules and telemarketing regulations.

Talent Search Firm in Trouble for Alleged COPPA Violations

The FTC has filed a complaint against online talent search firm Explore Talent for allegedly violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The complaint states that Explore Talent would allow children under the age of 13 to create accounts without the proper parental consent. To create an account, the children were also asked to provide information about their body type and to upload a picture of themselves onto the website. The FTC's order imposes a $500,000 fine on Explore Talent, which could be suspended based on their inability to pay. Read the FTC's release about this issue here.

Iowa Bill Would Impose $40,000 Fine on Caller-ID Spoofers

Iowa State Senator Ken Rozenboom has introduced a bill that would impose a civil penalty of up to $40,000 upon businesses that are believed to be using caller-ID "spoofing" tactics. Caller-ID spoofing is when the caller uses technology to make a local or familiar number appear on a call recipient's caller-ID. Last year, the FCC proposed a $120 million fine against a company that allegedly used this tactic. Telemarketers should only display numbers that they actually own. Read a local news story about the Iowa bill here.  Learn about telemarketing rules and consider signing up for an online telemarketing compliance course.

Telemarketing is Number One Consumer Complaint in Wisconsin

The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection has announced that unwanted telemarketing calls were the number one consumer complaint that residents of the state had during 2017. This is also the case at the national level, and likely in most states. Telemarketing complaints totaled nearly four times as many as the next highest category. Regulatory enforcement at both the State and Federal levels is complaint driven. Telemarketing businesses should make reducing and resolving consumer complaints a priority. Read a local news story about the announcement here. Learn about state by state telemarketing compliance. For example, make sure you understand state telemarketing license and telemarketing bond requirements. Learn more about FCC telemarketing laws, cell phone telemarketing laws, and do-not-call regulations. Contact a TCPA lawyer if you would like help understanding telemarketing regulations.

FTC Obtains Court Order Against Alleged Business Coaching Scheme

At the request of the FTC, a federal court has halted operations of a business that allegedly misrepresented its business coaching program and took over $14 million from consumers. According to the FTC's complaint, "The defendants induced consumers to pay for a series of tiered memberships with increasing fees, falsely claiming that consumers would learn how to make substantial income with an online business. They promised consumers they would receive individualized coaching from successful marketers that would provide what they needed to build a successful business, but, in reality, these were merely salespeople selling higher membership levels in the defendants’ program." Read the FTC's press release here.