Late Night Host John Oliver Criticizes Lack of Action on Robocalls

In a recent late night television segment, popular host John Oliver criticized the FCC for failing to prevent illegal robocalls. While there is some humor in the segment, Oliver's arguments about robocalls really missed the mark. Oliver claims that the leading robocallers in the U.S. are large, nationwide businesses like Wells Fargo. While companies like this do use prerecorded voice messages, many of those calls are made to legitimately communicate with their customers. Oliver fails to grasp the real issue at hand, which is that illegal robocalls made without consent are what really generate the complaints. Those who are in touch with the industry understand the dilemma that the FCC is facing. How can the agency reduce illegal robocalls while still allowing legitimate businesses to communicate with their customers? Oliver's tone indicates that he thinks all prerecorded voice messages in every context should be banned, which would obviously be a lose-lose for both businesses and the consumers who rely on those types of efficient communication. It's unfortunate to see someone with such a large following fail to do the proper research before publicly speaking out on the issue. Click here to watch the full segment. This segment could have been much more informative if Oliver had done his research regarding robocall laws, telemarketing compliance, autodialer laws, telemarketing license requirements, and do not call laws.

Washington State Senate Passes Privacy Regulation Mirroring GDPR

The Washington State Senate has passed a new, strict data protection bill. The bill passed by a vote of 46-1, and now the bill will move to the State's House of Representatives for their consideration. The text of this bill is very similar to the European Union’s GDPR that took effect last year. Under this bill, Washington residents would have the right to contact any company that has their personal data on record and access the data in electronic format, have the data deleted or corrected, and opt-out of having any future personal data stored by that company. This will most likely become one of the strictest data privacy regulations in the United States. Other states will likely pass similar bills in the near future, so be sure that your data privacy practices are safe and compliant. Read the full text of the bill here.

Facebook Challenges Constitutionality of TCPA

In Duguid v. Facebook Inc., social media giant Facebook is currently involved in a TCPA lawsuit over allegations that the company sent unsolicited "Happy Birthday" text messages to users. The plaintiffs in the case are arguing that those text messages were marketing in nature and that Facebook did not have consent to send them, therefore violating the TCPA. As part of its defense, Facebook is hoping that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will find that the TCPA is unconstitutional, as it violates the first amendment in restricting calls on the basis of content. Read more about this story here. While a ruling like this would be great for the industry, it is unlikely that the court would rule that the TCPA violates the first amendment. This argument has been made many times in courts all over the country without any success.
If you are unsure about your business's telemarketing compliance practices, be sure to consult with a telemarketing lawyer, telemarketing law firm, or telemarketing attorney.