Remarks of FCC Commissioner O'Rielly Before the Professional Association for Customer Engagement

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act was intended to protect consumers from abusive so-called "robocalls" and junk faxes while enabling legitimate businesses to reach customers that expressed interest in being contacted. Unfortunately, prior decisions by the Federal Communications Commission and courts throughout the country have expanded the boundaries of the TCPA far beyond what Congress intended.

In July, the FCC issued an extensive Declaratory Ruling and Order addressing most of the pending petitions. In some regards, this is a case of be careful what you wish for. To be sure, the FCC provided some clarity that many of you and I were seeking. But the item expanded the scope of the TCPA even further, increasing legitimate companies' litigation risk while doing virtually nothing that would actually protect consumers from abusive calling practices. I dissented from most of it. I will spend some time describing how the FCC's recent decisions, including the latest enforcement actions against Lyft and First National Bank, show that the FCC does not understand how the tech economy works.