A Brief Overview of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act

For over a decade, Zachary Andrew McEntyre has served clients as an attorney with King & Spalding, LLP, a global law firm based in Atlanta, Georgia. Focused on complex commercial litigation, Zachary Andrew McEntyre has represented corporate defendants in class action suits involving various legal matters, including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

Enacted by US Congress in 1991, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) restricts the use of automatic telephone dialing technology and regulates telemarketing calls and texts as well as unsolicited faxes. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is in charge of issuing regulations implementing the Act and is responsible for updating and clarifying its provisions.

Under FCC rules, the TCPA restricts telemarketing calls before 8 a.m. and after 9 p.m. in the called party’s local time zone. The Act also bars companies from making telemarketing or advertising calls to individuals on the National Do-Not-Call Registry, which was established in coordination with the Federal Trade Commission in 2003.

Calls that do not fall under TCPA restrictions include debt collection calls to wireline and wireless numbers. The FCC determined them to be exempt because they do not contain telemarketing messages. Survey and research calls as well as phoned bank fraud alerts are also exempt from TCPA consent regulations.

Zachary Andrew McEntyre

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