Updates
EPIC Joins NCLC-Led Coalition Defending FCC Rule That Prohibits Sale of Robocall Consents
July 26, 2024

On July 22, EPIC and the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC), along with Consumer Federation of America, Public Knowledge, and U.S. PIRG, filed an amicus brief in support of the Federal Communication Commission in Insurance Marketing Coalition Ltd. v. FCC, an Eleventh Circuit case challenging the FCC’s rule establishing that a phone subscriber can only provide consent to be robocalled to one seller at a time. The FCC’s rule means, for example, that filling out a form for car insurance quotes shouldn’t result in getting endless robocalls and texts about solar panels or calls about car insurance quotes from companies other than the one to which a website visitor manually consented.
The case is brought by Insurance Marketing Coalition (IMC), a lead generator company, which argued that the FCC exceeded its statutory authority in enacting the rule, that the rule violates the First Amendment, and that the rule is arbitrary and capricious. The FCC explained that it has long-established different rules for telemarketing and non-telemarketing calls, that its rule aligns with the meaning of consent, that lead generation websites are a problem, and that the new rule is an appropriate solution.
The NCLC-led brief, joined and filed by EPIC, argued that tightening consent requirements would limit the onslaught of unwanted telemarketing calls and that the FCC’s rule achieves this. The amicus brief also explains that the FCC’s rule is consistent with comparable rules issued by the Federal Trade Commission and the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services, as well as the FCC’s own prior rules about consent for non-telemarketing calls.
EPIC regularly advocates in TCPA cases in support of consumer privacy and files comments with regulatory agencies such as the FCC and the Federal Trade Commission to better protect consumers from unwanted calls.

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