With robocalls on the rise (estimates of over 29 billion robocalls in 2019), coupled with a projected consumer loss of $10.5 billion in 2018, the Federal government is taking steps to intervene.
In July 2019, the House of Representatives passed a bill to improve consumer protections against unsolicited robocalls. Their bill, titled the Stopping Bad Robocalls Act, follows the TRACED Act passed by the Senate in May. The House and the Senate are reconciling the two bills before sending the legislation to the White House for the President’s signature in the fall 0f 2019.
The final bill is expected to give regulators stronger enforcement tools. These include requiring phone carriers to implement call identification technology and mandating that the Federal Communications Commission report to Congress annually on the state of robocalls.
The act also increases penalties for robocalls, gives regulators more time to find scammers, increases civil forfeiture penalties for those who are caught and promotes call authentication and blocking adoption. It also brings relevant federal agencies together with state attorneys general to address impediments to criminal prosecution of robo-callers who intentionally flout laws.
Potential penalties could include:
- Civil fines of up to $10,000 per call on people who purposely ignore telemarketing restrictions.
- Extends the window for the FCC to catch and take civil enforcement action against intentional violators to three years after a robocall is placed.
- Unites several departments such as the Department of Justice, FCC, Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Department of Commerce, Department of State, Department of Homeland Security, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and other relevant federal agencies, as well as state attorneys general and other non-federal entities, to identify and report to Congress on improving deterrence and criminal prosecution at the federal and state level of robocall scams.
- Requires voice service providers to adopt call authentication technologies, enabling a telephone carrier to verify that incoming calls are legitimate before they reach consumers’ phones.
- Directs the FCC to initiate rulemaking to help protect subscribers from receiving unwanted calls or texts from robo-callers.
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