BREAKING: FCC TAKES NARROW VIEW OF TCPA “EMERGENCY PURPOSES” EXEMPTION FOR CORONAVIRUS-RELATED TEXTS

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A lot of firms have been taking stabs with misleading “emergency purposes” TCPA blogs regarding the coronavirus epidemic- hazarding a guess about what is, and is not, permissible without any guidance from the FCC on the subject. (Really inappropriate in my view.) We stayed clear of doing so, and now you’ll see why.

On Friday the FCC issue its FIRST and ONLY declaratory ruling on the subject—again don’t believe some of the misleading headlines you may have seen out there on this— and its clarifications are  narrow. On its own motion the FCC exempted certain calls related to the coronavirus pandemic from TCPA requirements—but only calls made by certain callers regarding certain topics:

“First, the caller must be from a hospital, or be a health care provider, state or local health official, or other government official as well as a person under the express direction of such an organization and acting on its behalf. Second, the content of the call must be solely informational, made necessary because of the COVID-19 outbreak, and directly related to the imminent health or safety risk arising out of the COVID-19 outbreak.”

The FCC goes on to expressly clarify that certain forms of Covid-19 related messages are not emergency in nature. These include “advertising a commercial grocery delivery service, or selling or promoting health insurance, cleaning services, or home test kits.”

Ruling available here: Coronavirus Ruling

The Baron provided his break down here. But for those of you wondering about the scope of the “emergency purposes” exemption—this is the definitive guidance you’ve been waiting for. More to come.

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Published by Eric J. Troutman

The Czar of TCPAWorld Eric Troutman is one of the country’s prominent class action defense lawyers and is nationally recognized in Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) litigation and compliance. He has served as lead defense counsel in more than 70 national TCPA class actions and has litigated nearly a thousand individual TCPA cases in his role as national strategic litigation counsel for major banks and finance companies. He also helps industry participants build TCPA-compliant processes, policies, and systems. Eric has built a national litigation practice based upon deep experience, rigorous analysis and extraordinary responsiveness. Eric and his team feel equally at home litigating multibillion dollar telecommunications class actions in federal court as they do developing and executing national litigation strategies for institutions facing an onslaught of individual TCPA matters. They thrive in each of these roles – delivering consistently excellent results – while never losing sight of the client experience. While many firms now tout TCPA expertise, Eric has been there from the beginning. He built one of the country’s first TCPA-only defense teams and began serving as national TCPA counsel for his clients nearly a decade ago. This perspective allows him to swiftly develop the right litigation strategies for dealing with recurring problems, without wasting time on tactics that are bound to fail. Eric’s rich historical perspective and encyclopedic knowledge of the TCPA landscape also make him an invaluable resource to institutional compliance teams struggling to comply with the shifting regulatory landscape. No task is too small – or too big. Indeed, Eric and his team have helped build TCPA-compliant systems and processes for some of the largest and most complex corporate entities in the country. He commonly works with in-house compliance counsel to build and implement enterprise and business-line specific TCPA solutions, performs TCPA audits and drafts and reviews proposed TCPA policies and procedures. He and his team also have the technical expertise necessary to assist call centers seeking to develop TCPA-resistant call path architecture or to modify existing telephony and software integration to better insulate from potential TCPA exposure. Eric has built a reputation for thought leadership. An avid blogger and speaker, he has been at the forefront of the industry’s effort to push for clarity and a return to sanity for the TCPA for years. He was selected to advocate for the financial services industry on important TCPA issues before the Federal Communications Commission and co-authored the nation’s only comprehensive practice guide on TCPA defense. In his spare time, Eric leads defense teams representing banks and other financial services companies in consumer finance litigation matters. He has experience representing clients in UCC, TILA, RESPA FCRA, CCRA, CLRA, FDCPA, RFDCPA and FCCPA claims, as well as in fraud and bank operations issues.

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  1. TCPAWorld. Always a vaccine for bad misinformation. Thanks for always being a trusted source – especially during this “infodemic.”

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