EPIC, NCLC, and Partners Urge FCC to Combat Unwanted Robotexts

November 11, 2022

On November 10, EPIC and the National Consumer Law Center, joined by six other consumer advocacy and legal aid organizations, submitted comments to the Federal Communications Commission, urging the FCC to do more to protect consumers from scam robotexts than its proposal of blocking of texts sent from numbers on a Do Not Originate (DNO) list. A DNO list is a list of numbers from which no texts would ever be sent (e.g. a customer service help line that is only used for inbound calls and would never send outbound texts), which represents a fraction of the source of unwanted robotexts. The organizations reminded the FCC of its authority to enforce requirements that protect phone subscribers from unwittingly consenting to receive telemarketing calls (including texts) from volumes of sellers with a single click. EPIC and NCLC also recommended that the Commission ensure industry-led efforts to prevent unwanted robotexts continue, as these seem to have some measure of positive impact on mitigating the problem. The organizations urged the FCC to protect consumers from scam robotexts, especially those containing malicious URLs, as well as from scams sent via non-SMS text messages (e.g., iMessage, WhatsApp, etc.). EPIC routinely participates in regulatory and legislative processes concerning robocalls and files amicus briefs in robocall cases.

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