Pub. 1 Issue 4

10 www.glancda.org NADA Overview of New Telephone and Text Consent Requirements that Took Effect October 16th N ADA wants to remind dealers that the Fed- eral Communication Commission (FCC) is strengthening its regulations under the Tele- phone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which governs the use of prerecorded calls or calls placed with an automated telephone dialing system – so called “robocalls.” The changes took effect October 16, 2013 and apply to telemarketing calls and messages. The new rules require dealers to get express written consent before making a prerecorded or autodialed telemarketing call. 1 This means that before making such calls, dealers must get written consent signed 2 by the customer that specifically indi- cates the dealer who will be making the calls, and it must include the telephone number for which consent is being given. This also means that the established business relationship exemption to the consent requirement is being eliminated for these types of calls. For the most part, the FCC is changing its rules to align the TCPA regulations with the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR). Thus, dealers already in compliance with the FTC’s more stringent rules under the TSR will not generally need to change their practices to comply with the recent FCC changes with re- spect to telephone calls made to residential land telephone lines. There are several issues raised by these new FCC rules that dealers must understand: 1. Are you using an “Automated Telephone Dialing System” (“ATDS”)? a. You may not be using prerecorded calls to contact con- sumers, but are you using software or systems that meet the definition of an ATDS under the new rules? b. The TCPA definition of ATDSmay cover computers used to make or assist inmaking telephone calls. That means that the FCCmay consider ANY telemarketing phone call made using such a system to be improper under the TCPA unless you have the consumer’s prior express written consent. 2. Calls to Cell Phones: a. Generally, you cannot make prerecorded or autodialed calls of any kind to a cell phone without prior express con-