ACA International has joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a coalition of industry associations in opposition to H.R. 7116, the Do Not Disturb Act, as part of our advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill. The comprehensive legislation from U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., is circulating on Capitol Hill to advance protections against “robocalls,” targeting technology used in many industries to contact consumers about financial services, health care, banking and more, ACA previously reported. The legislation builds on protection and illegal robocall mitigation in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act, authored by Pallone and U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.
“We strongly support and share the goal of thwarting unlawful actors that seek to defraud or commit other unlawful acts against consumers. Appropriately tailored efforts are critical to protect consumers from deception and other harms,” the coalition letter (PDF) states. “H.R. 7116 is the wrong legislation to achieve this goal. This legislation would curtail the ability of businesses to communicate with their customers, and would inflict new lawsuit-induced costs.”
In addition to the Chamber of Commerce and ACA, the American Bankers Association, American Financial Services Association, American Property Casualty Insurance Association, American Resort Development Association, American Staffing Association, America’s Credit Unions Cloud Communications Alliance, Coalition of Higher Education Assistance Organizations, Electronic Transactions Association, INCOMPAS, Mortgage Bankers Association, National Association of Manufacturers and the Voice on the Net Coalition signed the letter to the leadership of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
The legislation was referred to the committee in January.
The letter goes on to cover the potential impacts of H.R. 7116, including restricting “important communications by expanding the types of calling and texting equipment covered by the TCPA, thereby expanding the number of calls requiring prior express consent before the call may be placed, and the definition of what constitutes a text message through overbroad and ambiguous new requirements.”
As a result, “to avoid abusive litigation, some companies may choose not to make important calls or send informational text messages to their consumers at all,” the groups state in the letter.
Key components of the Do Not Disturb Act include:
- Replace the current definition of “automatic telephone dialing system” in the TCPA with “robocall … to include calls made and text messages sent (1) using equipment that makes calls or sends text messages to stored telephone numbers or telephone numbers generated by a random or sequential number generator, or (2) using an artificial or prerecorded voice or an artificially generated message, with limitations for calls and text messages sent using equipment that requires substantial human intervention.”
- Direct the FCC to conduct a study on the feasibility of creating a framework for text message authentication and origin for enforcing “robotext” violations.
- Require companies using AI to emulate a human being in a “robocall” to disclose the use of AI at the beginning of the call.
- Double fines for TCPA violations when AI is used to impersonate an individual “with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongfully obtain anything of value.”
- Direct the FCC to develop rules for voice service providers to offer free “robocall” blocking services to customers.
ACA’s Take
ACA will continue to build on our advocacy on the TRACED Act and work with the FCC to address misguided proposals in the Do Not Disturb Act.
Moving to undo the Facebook decision by expanding the definition of an autodialer to a system that calls a stored number without human intervention is misguided. To read more click here.