Telephone Consumer Protection Act (the “TCPA”)

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is a federal law that restricts telephone solicitations and robocalls. The purpose of TCPA is to protect consumers from invasive telemarketing practices. This is done through restrictions on the hours that solicitors can legally make calls and the equipment they can use, as well as the creation of a national database of “do not call” phone numbers. This applies to entities such as telemarketers, common carriers and debt collection agencies.

Households or other subscribers may sue solicitors who violate TCPA. Subscribers have a few options. They can sue a party for either $500 per violation or total monetary loss (whichever is greater), seek an injunction, or both. For TCPA violations that are deemed willful, subscribers can sue for up to three times the amount for each violation.

The most common violation are:

Calling households outside a standard 13-hour window (8 a.m. – 9 p.m. local time).
Failure to Identify either themselves or the person/entity they are representing. A name must be provided, as well as a telephone number or address.
failing to maintain and honor a company-specific “do not call” (DNC) list of households who request to not be contacted. Solicitors are required to honor “do not call” requests for a minimum of five years.
Not Refraining refrain from calling households listed in the National Do Not Call Registry.
Using calls that rely on artificial voices or recordings.
Calls using automated telephone equipment (such as predictive dialers, artificial voices or prerecorded messages to certain entities. This applies to solicitors calling, physician offices, hospital and other healthcare facility lines, emergency lines, cell phones or any telephone line where the recipient is charged for the call.
Using auto-dialed calls that use two or more of a business’s phone lines.
Faxing unsolicited advertisements.
For phone numbers not on the National Do Not Call Registry, callers are required to transmit a valid caller ID,

To learn whether your rights are being violated under the TCPA, please write to us through the “contact us” page for a complimentary evaluation.