ABA/Joint Trades’ Comment re: Revocation of Consent Under TCPA

Introduction and Summary

The American Bankers Association, American Financial Services Association, Mortgage Bankers Association, National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions, National Council of Higher Education Resources, and Student Loan Servicing Alliance (the Associations) appreciate the opportunity to comment on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (Notice) in the above-captioned proceeding. In the Notice, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) proposes to codify and, in certain respects, expand upon its 2015 ruling that stated consumers who have provided prior express consent under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) to receive autodialed or prerecorded voice calls or text messages may revoke consent through "any reasonable means" (2015 Order).

Specifically, the Commission proposes to codify the following provisions:

• A consumer may revoke consent using "any reasonable method [that] clearly express[es] a desire not to receive further calls or text messages from the caller or sender";
• The "sending of 'STOP' or a similar text message that reasonably conveys a desire to not receive further messages in reply to an incoming text message creates a presumption that the consumer has revoked consent in a reasonable way;"
• Businesses that call and text consumers "may not designate an exclusive means to request revocation of consent;
• All requests to revoke consent that are made in a reasonable manner "must be honored in a reasonable time not to exceed 24 hours from receipt" of the request;
• "[C]onsumers only need to revoke consent once to stop getting all" autodialed or prerecorded voice calls or text messages from a business; and
• When a consumer who has revoked consent previously consented to receive several categories of autodialed text messages from the sender, the "sender must cease all further texts absent further clarification that the recipient wishes to continue to receive certain text messages."

In the 2015 Order, the Commission held that a consumer may revoke consent to receive autodialed calls through "any reasonable means," without clarifying which means are "reasonable." The Associations' members respect and carry out customer requests to opt out of receiving autodialed or prerecorded voice calls or text messages, but our members often confront ambiguous expressions of intent to revoke consent. The broad and ambiguous revocation right established by the 2015 Order has made it difficult for callers to ensure that their customers' intentions are understood and carried out.

In order to facilitate the accurate and efficient processing of customer revocations, the Commission should provide that a business and its customer may contractually agree to specific and reasonable methods by which the customer may revoke consent to receive autodialed or prerecorded calls or text messages. For occasions where the parties have not contractually agreed upon permissible revocation methods, we urge the Commission to state in the regulatory text that a consumer may revoke consent only if the revocation is sent in direct response to the caller’s communication or is directed to the line of business of the caller that originated the call or text, using the methods provided by the caller or text sender. The Commission should establish and publicize a standardized set of words like "STOP," "QUIT," "END," or "UNSUBSCRIBE" that, if used, would create a presumption that the revocation attempt is reasonable.

Download the joint comment letter to read the full text.