EPIC, NCLC, and Sixteen Partners Urge Action from FCC on Unwanted and Scam Texts

Last week, eighteen legal services and consumer advocacy organizations, led by EPIC and the National Consumer Law Center, submitted reply comments to the Federal Communications Commission urging the FCC to protect consumers from unwanted and scam text messages. The organizations urged the FCC to support existing private industry efforts to block mass texts sent without the called party’s consent, to identify methods to protect consumers from malicious URLs sent in text messages, and to clarify consent requirements for telemarketing texts. Re-iterating a major point from November comments and an October ex parte, 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 (in at least one instance, 8,422 marketing “partners”). EPIC routinely participates in regulatory and legislative processes concerning robocalls (including robotexts) and files amicus briefs in robocall cases.