Insights Association Backs Ideas in TCPA Petition

US research body the Insights Association, responding to a petition from the Credit Union National Association (CUNA), has urged the FCC to legalise all non-telemarketing calls to a cell phone using an autodialer, where an existing business relationship exists or where calls are free to the recipient.

The FCC's 2015 Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) ban all 'autodialled' calls made to cell phones without prior consent, making 'it exceptionally challenging and legally hazardous to contact the 65.8% of U.S. households that are only reachable on their cell phones to participate in legitimate research studies', according to the Association. The definition of autodialer used in the legislation is such as to include 'pretty much any phone that's not a rotary dial phone' (pictured), according to observers.

CUNA has petitioned the FCC to agree that 'wireless informational calls and texts to credit union member-owners with whom the credit union has an established business relationship (EBR), or where the call or text is in fact free, are exempt from the TCPA's prior express consent requirement'. The Insights Association supports the exemptions but says they should apply to all manner of non-telemarketing calls made using a supposed automatic telephone dialing system (autodialer) - not just those made by a credit union to its members.

The Association is already an intervenor in a circuit court case against those rules, but says while the decision is pending, the amended CUNA change would provide 'important relief' for the MR industry. It comments: 'An EBR exemption would be a mild improvement for the marketing research and analytics industry, opening up customer satisfaction research calls, but unfortunately leaving most other kinds of research, especially random digit dial (RDD) surveys, mired in TCPA class action liability'. A more substantial breather would be afforded by the exemption of non-marketing calls that are free to the called party, especially since these days (in CUNA's words) 'virtually all calls or texts to wireless phones are under unlimited plans and hence free' - including low-income households using the FCC's subsidized Internet Lifeline program.

Web site: www.insightsassociation.org .