FCC pleads for economic shutdown of automated calls

Automated calls are not only boring, they also cost US consumers at least $ 3 billion a year, according to the Federal Communications Commission.

In an article published Wednesday on his blog, the regulator said: "Illegal automated calls are not a loss of peace of mind for households, they also weigh on our economy". The agency said the latest YouMail data suggest that there were 2.5 billion illegal automated calls in March 2019 alone. FCC estimates that the cost of these calls for consumers is at least $ 3 billion a year, just for the time lost. This estimate is likely low as it does not include financial losses due to fraud, the agency said.

The blog, written by FCC Chief Economist Babette Boliek, and Eric Burger, Chief Technology Officer, was released the day before. the agency is ready to vote on a proposal give mobile phone companies greater power to block unwanted automated calls.

FCC President Ajit Pai released the details of the proposal last month. If adopted, it would allow mobile operators to block these automated calls for default customers. The companies would also allow consumers to block calls from unknown numbers themselves. Customers can register or not in all blocking services.

The FCC's focus on these calls comes as Congress expressed its frustration at the illegal automated calls in April and reintroduced a bipartite law called the Robocall Violence Act and the law. TRACED. The bill would improve enforcement policies, criminalize illegal phone calls and force the telephone companies to use new technology to validate that calls originate from their intended place of residence. In addition, the protocol would allow faster tracing of illegal automated calls. the the bill was passed by the US Senate and goes to the House, where he enjoys bipartisan support.

The number of unsolicited automated calls has risen by 46% between 2017 and 2018. A report released in January by Hiya, a caller ID service, indicated that about 26.3 billion dollars were spent. Automated calls had been organized in the United States in 2018. This number rose to 10 monthly calls per person on average. .

The FCC has stated that the frustration aroused by automated calls is the # 1 consumer complaint with hundreds of thousands of grievances filed annually with the agency. This latest FCC initiative will allow operators to block illegal or unwanted calls before they even reach consumers.

Blocking legitimate calls

Mobile operators such as AT & T and Verizon applauded the proposal, saying that allowing them to have more powerful tools could stop the flow of these calls. But some companies say the FCC's policy may be too broad, allowing operators to block automated calls from legitimate sources by default.

This is why several trade groups, including ACA International, which represents credit and collection companies, the American Association of Healthcare Management, the Credit Union National Association, and the American Bankers Association, have met with FCC officials last week to voice their concerns.

"Despite the very well-intentioned efforts of the FCC to target these bad actors, the draft declaratory decision is too ambitious to attempt to achieve the laudable goal of stopping illegal automated appeals," he said. ACA International in a document filed with the FCC. The group stated that the proposed rules could "qualify lawful calls as fraudulent or fraudulent calls", which "would allow the blocking of legitimate and necessary calls without notification of blocking, without recourse required and without correction required ".

What types of calls could be blocked? According to lawyers Melissa Gomberg, Kimberly Freedman and Erin Kolmansberger of, automated calls from pharmacies, doctor's offices, customer service and credit card fraud protection alerts could inadvertently be caught up in the automatic blocking network Nelson Mullins Broad and Cassel, who frequently defend companies sued in class actions for violating the Consumer Telephone Protection Act (TCPA).

"There are legitimate reasons to use an automatic dialer or identity theft," Gomberg said in an interview. "Doctors' offices routinely usurize numbers so that the number displayed when a doctor calls a patient is not a personal number."

Reminders from support centers can also be blocked. She added that the current FCC policy would allow operators to block these calls by default without ever informing the consumer that such an appeal had been attempted, which would make patients miss important information about their health or customers waiting for technical support that never happened.

"There is already a lot of confusion around what is legal or illegal with regard to automatic dialers under the TCPA, and that just adds to the complexity," she added. . "To classify a call as" undesirable "is so subjective."

At least one FCC commissioner, Michael O. Rielly, understands the nuance of this argument. He has already warned that allowing operators to block automated calls by default could have unintended consequences.

"All automated calls are not illegal or fraudulent, and we must be specific in describing the real problem," he said at a hearing in the House last month. "Many honest and legitimate businesses use automatic numbering technologies to communicate the necessary information to their customers, which is perfectly in line with the scope and scope of TCPA. [Telephone Consumer Protection Act]. "

However, FCC officials have stated that giving operators the ability to automatically block illegal automated calls without requiring consumers to choose to receive the desired service matches their wishes and needs.

"Inertia is a barrier for many consumers who would otherwise participate in a call blocking program," FCC officials said in an article published on the blog on Wednesday. In this post, Boliek and Burger explained that smaller service providers had explained to the agency that it was too expensive and inefficient to convince consumers to enroll in a lock-up program. Calls rather than offering it by default.

The call blocking technology provider, Hiya, estimates that 95% of its customers choose to stay on its opt-out call blocking program, while only 20% choose to join its program. 39; opt-in.

"Setting a call blocking service as a default service can dramatically increase consumer participation while leaving them with the choice," said FCC officials.

By making it more difficult for consumers to access via automated calls, they argued that it would shatter the business model that pushes fraudsters to use automated calling technology.

"Finally, when the telephone operators block unwanted calls," said the blog, "the paging campaigns will be much less economical to inflict on the consumer."