Landmark Legislation to Amend TCPA and Allow Cell Phone Contact Introduced in the House of Representatives
On Thursday, September 22, 2011, the Mobile Informational Call Act of 2011 was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in an effort to solve the issue of allowing companies to contact consumers on their wireless numbers using predictive dialers. Significantly, the Act permits informational calls to mobile telephone numbers using predictive dialers, and calls where the wireless phone number was provided as a contact number by the called party.
The proposed bill, which modernizes the TCPA, will provide an exemption from liability for calls made to cellular phones with prior express consent of the called party, or for a commercial purpose that does not constitute a telephone solicitation.
Under the amendments, providing a telephone number as a contact number constitutes “prior express consent” for purposes of the TCPA. Thus, anytime a consumer provides his cell phone number as a contact number, an entity may use a predictive dialer that otherwise conforms with the TCPA to contact the consumer without incurring liability. Additionally, the amendments permit cell phone contact to determine whether an established business relationship exists, or where prior express consent for telephone solicitation was granted.
Notably, the proposed bill creates federal preemption of state regulations that concern the subject matter of the TCPA, except for those regulations restricting telephone solicitations.
The full text of the Mobile Informational Call Act of 2011, HR Bill 3035, is available here.
Please do not hesitate to contact David Anthony, John Lynch, Ethan Ostroff or Liz Flowers if you have questions.