Senate Bill 151, now called “the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act” (the “TRACED Act”), has been reconciled with the House of Representatives’ bipartisan bill House Bill 3375 and...more
On November 26, 2019, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted unanimously to ban Huawei Technologies Company and ZTE Corporation equipment and services from all projects subsidized by funding from the FCC’s...more
12/5/2019
/ China ,
FCC ,
Foreign Policy ,
Huawei ,
Information Technology ,
National Security ,
Prohibited Transactions ,
Supply Chain ,
Technology Sector ,
Telecommunications ,
Universal Service Fund ,
ZTE
After a long wait, the California Attorney General’s (AG) office held a news conference on October 10, 2019, and published proposed regulations implementing the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Companies gearing up for...more
10/17/2019
/ California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) ,
Comment Period ,
Consent ,
Consumer Privacy Rights ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Processors ,
Notice Requirements ,
Opt-Outs ,
Personally Identifiable Information ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Public Comment ,
Public Hearing ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Request For Information ,
Rulemaking Process
On October 1, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit released a long awaited decision in Mozilla Corporation v. FCC that largely upheld most aspects of the Federal Communications Commission’s 2018 “Restoring Internet...more
10/9/2019
/ Appeals ,
Broadband ,
Classification ,
Deregulation ,
FCC ,
Internet ,
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) ,
Net Neutrality ,
Preemption ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Remand ,
Telecommunications ,
Telephone Service Providers
The FCC’s TCPA docket now has two pending petitions for declaratory ruling on the question as to whether outbound telemarketing calls made through soundboard technology are prohibited communications if made without prior...more
In many TCPA cases, the sufficiency of a plaintiff’s allegations, particularly those concerning the defendant’s alleged use of an automatic telephone dialing system (“ATDS”), are tested at the pleadings stage through a motion...more
In a release aptly labeled “A Starting Point for IoT Device Manufacturers” the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an arm of the Department of Commerce, recently added to the discussion with the...more
8/21/2019
/ Comment Period ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Data Security ,
Distributed Denial of Service ,
Internet of Things ,
Manufacturers ,
NIST ,
Popular ,
Public Comment ,
Risk Management ,
Risk Mitigation ,
Software Developers
The Western District of Oklahoma recently granted a plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment against NorthStar Alarm Services, LLC (“NorthStar”) in a certified class action. The court held, in part, that NorthStar was...more
The FCC on August 1 voted to adopt enhanced Truth in Caller ID rules that will subject a broader range of “spoofed” calls to new heftier statutory civil penalty and potentially criminal sanctions for willful and knowing...more
Small-scale satellite operations licensed in the United States may soon benefit from a more accessible and flexible authorization framework. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last year proposed and is now poised to...more
The Northern District of Illinois recently clarified that a “revocation class” that defines a putative class as those having made “a request to stop calling [their] number” does not satisfy Rule 23(b)(3)’s predominance...more
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) took another step closer to establishing a three-year, $100 million Connected Care Pilot program following review of public comments on its prior Notice of Inquiry that previewed...more
On June 24, 2019, the FCC’s adopted Declaratory Ruling and Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“Third FNPRM”) was published in the Federal Register, triggering the commenting period deadlines...more
While the FCC has a record open to adopt guidance and a new definition for what it considers as an “automatic telephone dialing system” (ATDS) and related TCPA matters, there appears to be growing consensus on “Robocall”...more
6/24/2019
/ Auto-Dialed Calls ,
Bad Actors ,
Do Not Call List ,
Enforcement Actions ,
FCC ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Robocalling ,
Safe Harbors ,
TCPA ,
Telecommunications
By directing voice service providers to deal with “unwanted calls” as part of its anti-robocall policies, the FCC seems to have moved well beyond addressing “illegal and spoofed robocalls.” The text of the FCC’s new “Call...more
6/12/2019
/ Algorithms ,
Call Blocking ,
Declaratory Rulings ,
FCC ,
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) ,
Opt-Outs ,
Robocalling ,
Safe Harbors ,
Spoofing ,
Telecommunications ,
Telephone Service Providers
Voice service providers soon may dictate which calls will reach you. The FCC honed in on “unwanted calls” when it voted at its Open Meeting yesterday to adopt a Declaratory Ruling and Third Further Proposed Rulemaking (the...more
6/7/2019
/ Auto-Dialed Calls ,
Call Blocking ,
Declaratory Rulings ,
FCC ,
Opt-Outs ,
Robocalling ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Spoofing ,
TCPA ,
Telecommunications ,
Telephone Service Providers
Businesses may dial large volumes of numbers daily for a variety of legitimate purposes. These calls now appear to have become swept up and conflated with illegal robocalls, with a number of undesirable consequences....more
5/20/2019
/ B2C ,
Call Blocking ,
Caller ID Services ,
FCC ,
Opt-Outs ,
Proposed Rules ,
Reassigned Phone Numbers ,
Robocalling ,
Safe Harbors ,
Spoofing ,
Telemarketing ,
Telephone Service Providers ,
Third-Party Service Provider