FCC Issues Mixed-Bag Amended TCPA Exemptions Order

Editor's Note: This article, authored by Sarah Siu, Virginia Bell Flynn, Stefanie Jackman & Brooke Conkle previously appeared in Troutman Pepper’s Consumer Financial Services Law Monitor and is re-published here with permission.
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As previously reported here, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a proposed rule in December 2020 that would place new call-frequency limitations and opt-out requirements on certain prerecorded non-telemarketing calls to residential numbers that can be called without prior consent under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). 

The TCPA has long allowed unlimited prerecorded calls to residential lines made (a) for non-commercial purposes, (b) for non-telemarketing commercial purposes, (c) by tax-exempt nonprofit organizations, and (d) for health-related purposes. 

Under the new rule, however, to be exempt from the TCPA’s consent requirements, callers would be limited to three prerecorded non-commercial, non-telemarketing, or non-profit calls per 30 days, or three calls per week (one per day) for healthcare-related calls, and would need to include an opportunity to opt out of prerecorded calls as part of the message. 

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