After FCC Abandons Popular Telemarketing Rule, Consumers Take Action to Save It
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Nicole Funaro, Public Justice nfunaro@publicjustice.net (203) 435-1722
Stephen Rouzer, National Consumer Law Center srouzer@nclc.org (202) 320-8394
Small business owners and consumer advocates have stepped up to save a popular anti-robocall rule.
ATLANTA — Yesterday, four small business owners and the National Consumers League asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit for permission to intervene to request a rehearing after it issued a decision to overturn a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule drafted to fight the nation’s robocall epidemic. 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 2023 regulation, known as the “one-to-one consent” rule, 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 repeats every time their data is sold again. The sheer volume of unwanted telemarketing robocalls has made it more difficult for telecom service providers to identify and block scam calls. And many consumers have lost trust in the phone system and have stopped answering calls from unknown numbers. That’s not an option for the four small business owners who are intervening to save the rule.
One of them is Mark Schwanbeck, who provides tax preparation and accounting services to small businesses. Because current and potential clients contact him over the phone, ignoring potential robocalls is not possible. He pays nearly $200 a year for a call screening service, which blocked 1,587 robocalls last year. Mark believes the FCC rule would save him time and money, writing in his declaration, “I have an interest in seeking rehearing of the court’s ruling because I want the regulation to be implemented.”
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.
“The FCC spent years developing this rule and the feedback it received from consumers, business owners, and even the telecom industry was unequivocal: do something about telemarketing robocalls,” said Leah Nicholls, director of Public Justice’s Access to Justice project. “If the new administration won’t stand up for consumers, including defending its own well-designed and wildly popular regulations, we will.”
“The regulation was widely supported as a means to restore trust in the U.S. telephone system by consumer and privacy groups, a bipartisan coalition of 28 state Attorneys General, as well as the telephone industry,” said Margot Saunders, senior attorney with the National Consumer Law Center. “It is well recognized that by cutting the onslaught of telemarketing calls (over 1.4 billion every month), telephone service providers will be better able to identify and block the dangerous scam calls plaguing consumers.”
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Related Resources
Consumers Denied Relief from Unwanted Telemarketing Calls After Federal Court Scraps Consent Rule, Jan. 27, 2025
National Consumer and Privacy Groups Opposition to a Stay of 1-to-1 Consent Regulation, Jan. 22, 2025
Amicus brief by National Consumer Law Center, and other groups to 11th Circuit in Insurance Marketing Coalition v. Federal Communications Commission, July 22, 2024
Ex Parte Letter Describing Meeting with Income FCC Chair Carr’s Staff About 1 to 1 Consent Regulation, Jan. 9, 2025
FCC Rulemaking Will Protect Consumers from Invasive Robocalls, Dec. 13, 2023