The FCC’s TCPA dockets can be among the agency’s most active, with intermittent waves of petitions filed, followed by releases of public notices seeking comments on petitions for declaratory rulings or clarifications of FCC rules. It can be difficult to track down TCPA items in the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System. But fear not: the Drinker Biddle TCPA team has put together this tracker chart to help our readers locate pending TCPA petitions and associated public notices. The chart is organized by issue and contains brief summaries of the requests made by petitioners. It does not include petitions for reconsideration of the FCC’s July 2015 omnibus order.
ATDS Definition
Prior Consent
| Petitioner |
Summary |
Docket |
Related Public Notice |
Petition filed |
| M3 USA Corporation |
Requests an expedited declaratory ruling from the FCC to confirm that research survey invitations are not TCPA advertisements. |
05-338 |
Public Notice was released on March 28, 2017. Comment cycle completed. |
4/4/17 |
| Craig Cunningham and Craig Moskowitz |
Seeks a rulemaking (a) to overturn the FCC’s improper interpretation that “prior express consent” includes implied consent resulting from a party’s providing a telephone number to the caller; and (b) to uniformly require that for all calls made to cellular and residential lines subject to the TCPA’s prohibitions in 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1)(A)(iii) and 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1)(B), “prior express consent” to such telephone calls must actually be (i) express consent (ii) specifically to receive autodialed and/or artificial voice/prerecorded telephone calls, (iii) at a specified telephone number, and (iv) be in writing. |
|
Public Notice was released on February 8, 2017. Comment cycle completed. |
1/31/2017 |
| bebe stores, inc. |
Petitioner seeks a retroactive waiver from the FCC’s prior-express-written-consent requirement for automated telemarketing calls. |
|
Public Notice was released December 2, 2016. Comment cycle completed. |
11/18/2016 |
| SUMOTEXT Corporation |
Petitioner seeks clarification that when a consumer sends a message to a company allowing for the company to send text messages to the consumer, the process meets TCPA requirements. |
|
2015. Comment cycle completed. |
|
Debt Collection
| Petitioner |
Summary |
Docket |
Related Public Notice |
Petition filed |
| Federal Housing Finance Authority |
Seeks clarification that calls made by mortgage holders to borrowers in disaster-affected areas, where the called individual previously provided the phone number, fit “within the scope of consent” under the TCPA. |
02-278 |
Public Notice released November 17, 2017. Comment cycle completed. |
11/15/2017 |
| Great Lakes Higher Education Corp. |
Seeks reconsideration of FCC’s three-calls-per-month limitation on debt collection calls. |
02-278 |
Public Notice released on May 14, 2018. Comment cycle complete. |
12/16/2016 |
Established Business Relationship
| Petitioner |
Summary |
Docket |
Related Public Notice |
Petition filed |
| Life Insurance Direct Marketing Association et al. |
Seeks a ruling that “life insurance agents and brokers (collectively, ‘servicing agents’) are permitted to call their customers while the life insurance policies sold by servicing agents are in effect and for a period of 18 months after the policies expire based on an ‘established business relationship’ (‘EBR’) between life insurance servicing agents and their customers. |
02-278 |
Public Notice released on July 6, 2018. Comment cycle completed. |
6/18/2018 |
Emergency Purpose
| Petitioner |
Summary |
Docket |
Related Public Notice |
Petition filed |
| IHS Markit |
Seeks a clarification that motor vehicle safety recall-related communications – including, for example, those made to address a Takata recall – are “made for emergency purposes.” |
02-278 |
Public Notice released on Oct. 4, 2018. Comment cycle completed. |
9/21/2018 |
Exemptions for Federal Government Contractors
| Petitioner |
Summary |
Docket |
Related Public Notice |
Petition Filed |
| Professional Services Council |
Seeks a modification of only that portion of the Commission’s Broadnet Declaratory Ruling necessary to provide TCPA relief to government contractors acting on behalf of the federal government, in accordance with their contract’s terms and the government’s directives, without regard to whether a common-law agency relationship exists. |
02-278 |
Public Notice released August 15, 2016. Comment cycle completed. |
8/4/2016 |
Healthcare Calls
| Petitioner |
Summary |
Docket |
Related Public Notice |
Petition Filed |
| Inovalon, Inc. |
Seeks a declaratory ruling from the FCC that confirms faxes sent by the designee of a health plan to a patient’s medical provider, confirming that requesting patient medical records are not “unsolicited advertisements.” |
02-278 |
Public Notice was released February 23, 2018. Comment cycle completed. |
3/5/2018 |
| Anthem, Inc.; Blue Cross Blue Shield Association; Wellcare Health Plans, Inc.; American Association of Healthcare Administrative Management |
Seeks an express exemption for non-telemarking health care-related calls from the current restrictions that otherwise apply under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. |
02-278 |
Public Notice released August 19, 2016. Comment cycle completed. |
7/28/2016 |
| Anthem, Inc. |
Seeks express exemption for non-telemarking health care-related calls from the current restrictions that otherwise apply under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. |
02-278 |
Public Notice released August 31, 2015. Comment cycle completed. |
6/10/2015 |
| Acurian |
Seeks clarification that “a telephone call to a residential telephone line seeking an individual’s participation in a clinical pharmaceutical trial is exempt from the restrictions on prerecorded calls enacted as part of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.” |
02-278 |
Public Notice released February 20, 2014. Comment cycle completed. |
2/5/2014 |
Informational Calls
| Petitioner |
Summary |
Docket |
Related Public Notice |
Petition Filed |
| Credit Union National Association |
Seeks exemption from the TCPA’s prior-express-consent requirement credit union informational calls made to its members’ wireless phone numbers that are in fact free to the called party |
02-278 |
Public Notice released on Oct. 6, 2017. Comment cycle completed. |
9/29/2017 |
| Anthem, Inc.; Blue Cross Blue Shield Association; Wellcare Health Plans, Inc.; American Association of Healthcare Administrative Management |
Seeks express exemption for non-telemarking health care-related calls from the current restrictions that otherwise apply under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. |
02-278 |
Public Notice released August 19, 2016. Comment cycle completed. |
7/28/2016 |
| Network Communications International Corp. |
Seeks a declaratory ruling that its use of a one-time informational text message to establish a billing relationship with a called party who does not answer or respond to a collect call from an inmate using NCIC’s inmate calling service does not require prior express consent from the called party |
02-278 |
Public Notice released June 7, 2017. Comment cycle completed. |
5/10/2016 |
| Lifetime Entertainment Services, LLC |
Seeks clarification that a call to provide information about a service change is not made for a commercial purpose, that such informational calls are neither advertising nor telemarketing, and that these calls are therefore not prohibited by the TCPA and the Commission’s rules. |
02-278 |
Public Notice released February 5, 2016. Comment |
12/11/2015 |
| Anthem, Inc. |
Seeks express exemption non-telemarking health care-related calls from the current restrictions that otherwise apply under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. |
02-278 |
Public Notice released August 31, 2015. Comment cycle completed. |
6/10/2015 |
| Acurian |
Seeks clarification that “a telephone call to a residential telephone line seeking an individual’s participation in a clinical pharmaceutical trial is exempt from the restrictions on prerecorded calls enacted as part of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.” |
02-278 |
Public Notice released February 20, 2014. Comment cycle completed. |
2/5/2014 |
Revocation of Consent
| Petitioner |
Summary |
Docket |
Related Public Notice |
Petition Filed |
| Mobile Media Technologies |
Seeks a ruling that the TCPA does not require a party transmitting a text message to create or make available a specific method by which a consumer may revoke prior express consent to be sent text messages. |
02-278 |
Public Notice released April 27, 2016. Comment cycle completed. |
3/7/2016 |
Survey/Research Calls
| Petitioner |
Summary |
Docket |
Related Public Notice |
Petition Filed |
| The Insights Association; The American Association for Public Opinion Research |
Seeks general guidance from the FCC on the nature of the survey, opinion, and market research model. Clarity would reduce significant and unjustified waste of resources in the marketplace. |
02-278 |
Public Notice released May 23, 2018. Comment cycle completed. |
05/23/2018 |
| M3 USA Corporation |
Seeks an expedited declaratory ruling from the FCC to confirm that research survey invitations are not TCPA advertisements. |
05-338 |
Public Notice was released on March 28, 2017. Comment cycle completed. |
4/4/2017 |
Nature of TCPA “Calls”
| Petitioner |
Summary |
Docket |
Related Public Notice |
Petition Filed |
| P2P Alliance |
Seeks further clarification whether P2P text messaging is subject to the TCPA’s restriction on calls to mobile phone numbers. |
02-278 |
Public Notice released May 23, 2018. Comment cycle completed. |
5/4/2018 |
| Todd C. Bank |
Seeks clarification that the TCPA’s restrictions on unsolicited, pre-recorded telephone calls apply to calls made to home-business telephone lines that are registered with the telephone-service provider as residential lines.” |
02-278 |
Public Notice released March 31, 2016. Comment cycle completed. |
3/7/2016 |
Vicarious Liability
| Petitioner |
Summary |
Docket |
Related Public Notice |
Petition Filed |
| Vincent Lucas |
Seeks application of vicarious liability to those who assist telemarketers in violating the TCPA. In addition, Lucas makes the argument that recognizing vicarious liability for assisting illegal telemarketing will greatly assist in enforcement of the TCPA |
02-278 |
Public Notice released July 9, 2014. Comment cycle completed. |
6/18/2014 |
Technical Errors
| Petitioner |
Summary |
Docket |
Related Public Notice |
Petition Filed |
| ContextMedia Inc. d/b/a Outcome Health |
Petitioner seeks clarification from the Commission about whether an unknowable technical error is protected from liability under the TCPA. |
|
Public Notice released October 27, 2017. Comment cycle completed. |
10/20/2017 |
