As we noted in a client advisory earlier this week, the FCC’s Anda, Inc. Order dismissed 24 pending petitions in the FCC’s TCPA docket. The Order clarified that ALL faxed ads must contain the opt-out information required by the FCC’s rules and rejected the arguments made by numerous petitioners claiming that only unsolicited fax advertisements should be required to include the detailed opt-out notice required by the rules.
In the Order, the FCC:
- Confirmed that “opt-out notices are required on all fax ads” and that those notices must conform to the standards adopted by the FCC in its 2006 Junk Fax Order.
- Granted retroactive relief to specific parties that made requests for waiver due to uncertainty over the issue of whether the opt-out notice requirement applied to faxes sent with the recipient’s prior permission. These identified parties were given until April 30, 2015 (a 6-month window from October 30, 2014) to bring their practices into conformance with FCC requirements. The Commission also invited similarly situated parties to seek waivers.
- Declared that Rule 64.1200(a)(4)(iii) applies to all faxed ads, including those sent with the recipient’s prior express permission or based on a prior existing business relationship, and each opt-out notice must:
- be clear and conspicuous;
- state on the first page of the ad that the recipient may make a request to the sender not to send any future ads and that failure to comply, within 30 days, with such a request is unlawful; and
- contain a domestic contact telephone number and fax number for the recipient to transmit an opt-out request.
- Stated any opt-out notice not satisfying all of these requirements is deficient.
- Refused to grant declaratory rulings that the Commission “lacked the statutory authority to require opt-out information on fax ads sent with a consumer’s prior express permission or, alternatively, that section 227(b) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended … was not the statutory basis of that requirement.”
If you would like more information on how this decision may impact you or your business, or if you would like assistance filing a waiver of the FCC’s opt-out rules, please contact Jane Wagner: jlw@commlawgroup.com – 703-714-1321 – Linda McReynolds: lgm@commlawgroup.com – 703-714-1318 – or Robert Jackson: rhj@commlawgroup.com – 703-714-1316.
