Insurance Marketing Coalition LTD v. the Federal Communications Commission
What’s at Stake
The FCC has abandoned the “one-to-one consent” rule, which would have prevented a telemarketer from selling consumers’ information to other telemarketers after the consumer consented to be contacted only by that one telemarketer.
Details
Four small business owners and the National Consumers League asked the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals for permission to intervene to request a rehearing after it issued a decision to overturn the FCC’s one-to-one consent rule. Public Justice and the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) are representing the proposed intervenors in their effort to defend a rule intended to help consumers, small businesses, and the national phone system. The December 2024 regulation would have ended a loophole allowing telemarketers and “lead generators” to sell consumers’ information to other telemarketers even when the consumer only meant to consent to being contacted by one telemarketer. The result is a wave of robocalls that repeat every time their data is sold again.
Core Legal Problem
Historically, agencies defend their own rules in court. However, just prior to the Eleventh Circuit’s decision, the FCC’s new leadership issued a statement that it would pause implementation of the “one-to-one consent” rule, and it has not indicated it will defend the rule further.