The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeks comment on a petition asking that the FCC clarify the scope of “prior express consent” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). Specifically, Citizens Bank asks the FCC to confirm that if someone chooses to purposefully advertise his or her cell phone number, that party will be considered to have provided prior express consent to receive autodialed or prerecorded non-telemarketing calls on that number.
The TCPA generally prohibits certain calls to cell phones that are made with an autodialer or an artificial or prerecorded voice. The statute permits such non-marketing calls, however, when the called party has given prior express consent. In the context of faxes (also subject to regulation under the statute), the FCC has noted that, in the context of an established business relationship, “if the sender obtains the number from the recipient’s own advertisement, the advertisement would serve as evidence of the recipient’s agreement to make the number available for public distribution.” Citizens Bank asks the FCC to clarify that the same rule applies to cell phone calls.
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