New Law from FCC May Restrict Auto Dialer

The FCC (News - Alert) instituted its Telephone Consumer Protection Act placing restrictions on the use of an auto dialer in 1992 and through that legislation set up the national Do Not Call registry, which was applicable to all telemarketers. This legislation was devised to protect the public from unwanted calls using auto dialer software and now it seems there is further regulation that is being enacted.

The Report & Order adopted by the FCC not only creates a new registry that incorporates public safety answering points (otherwise known as PSAPs, which are essentially call centers responsible for answering calls for fire, police, and other emergency services), but also places a requirement for all operators of robo calling and auto dialing equipment to register and avoid calling the numbers on this new registry.

The goal and purpose of this new legislation is to limit (and potentially eliminate) all non-emergency calls received by PSAPs and the rule defines “operators of automatic dialing or robo call equipment” as any entity that broadcasts prerecorded or live voice calls or text messages using automatic telephone dialing systems.

Working this new registry into your current do not call list for lead management may be a bit of an inconvenience, as your company will have to subscribe to the registry and will have to certify that when the registry is accessed it is only to prevent auto dialer calls from reaching these numbers on the registry. Potential fines and violations for calling numbers on the registry will range anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 per call and disclosing or disseminating numbers on the directory without authorization may carry fines of $100,000 to $1,000,000 per incident.

Make sure that whether you are utilizing an auto dialer or predictive dialer equipment that you fully comply with these requests from the FCC so that you do not incur any penalties and so that your call center can operate at its fullest capacity without concern.