TCPA and Revocation of Consent – Who? What? Where? How?

Let’s say you are enrolled in an airline sky miles program, and you give them permission to call or text you on your cell phone if they need to contact you about your upcoming flights.  But you decide you no longer want to get those texts and cell phone calls.  According to the new Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) Declaratory Ruling relating to revocation of consent the next time you are on a flight, you can say to the flight attendant during beverage service “Hello, my name is John Doe and my phone number is 612-555-1212 and I no longer want texts or phone calls to my cell phone from your airline.”  If they call or text you after that, you can sue them under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

While this may seem ridiculous, this is exactly the issue with the revocation section in the FCC’s July 10, 2015 Declaratory Ruling (https://www.fcc.gov/document/tcpa-omnibus-declaratory-ruling-and-order) (“Ruling” or “Rule”). Section 3(b) of the ruling, which deals with revocation of consent is so broad that it will be difficult for some companies to comply with it, especially the larger companies with offices across the U.S. With the way the rule is written, there is so much room for error that many companies who have consent to contact a consumer on a cell phone will simply stop doing so altogether. This will ultimately result in consumers who WANT to be contacted via cell or a text message to not be able to get those touch-points going forward.

But before we dive into renovation of consent – let’s talk a bit about getting the consent in the first place. In Section 3(a) of the FCC’s July 10, 2015 Declaratory Ruling, the FCC discusses consent: