2014 saw an increase in TCPA litigation, especially class action litigation, as well as significant FTC and FCC enforcement. In 2014, we grappled with what the new “written consent” standard meant, and dozens of TCPA-related petitions were filed with the FCC. New risks related to VoIP and wireless lines emerged.
What does 2015 have in store? Well, we should expect to see at least 3 things in the New Year: (1) some long-awaited petition responses from the FCC; (2) the initiation of the new public safety answering point (PSAP) DNC list; and (3) a continued increase in TCPA related law suits, fines and settlements.
TCPA plaintiffs started the 2015 New Year in typical fashion, by filing a massive class action suit against Toyota and Sirius XM radio. A Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. customer filed a putative class action in Californiai federal court on January 8, 2015, claiming Toyota gave his information to Sirius XM Holdings Inc., who then made subsequent illegal telemarketing calls in violation of the TCPA (Trenz v. Sirus XM Holdings, Inc. et al, case number 3:15-cv-00044, US District Court for the Southern District of California).
National DNC suppression has been a key compliance component for over a decade. Wireless identification and suppression have also been important for some time, but never more so than now. The amended TCPA provides new protections for cell phones, and arguably for VoIP lines as well. Many VoIP users are charged per call, which brings them under the protection of the wireless consent rule that protects traditional mobile phones. Marketers should take care in 2015 to actively identify and scrub not only wireless numbers, but also VoIP lines as well. To reduce the number of known TCPA plaintiff’s in their calling lists, marketers should also consider actively scrubbing against a list of previous TCPA litigators. A single TCPA “career plaintiff” can cost your company in the six-figures or more, as many brands learned the hard way in 2014. I wonder how many of their millions Toyota and Sirius will spend to get rid of their new legal battle against TCPA litigator, Mr. Trenz.
Stay safe in 2015 by utilizing our new Litigator identification solution. There are over 67,000 phones numbers in our Litigator Scrub® database of consumers and class action attorneys who have sued contact centers. Combine this with additional identification of VoIP phone numbers and protect your company with guaranteed TCPA risk mitigation.