FCC Seeks Further Comment on TCPA Rules

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Monday sought comment on a petition by Mammoth Mountain Ski Area asking for additional clarity on Telephone Consumer Protection Act prohibitions requiring prior express written consent for all autodialed or prerecorded telemarketing calls to wireless numbers and residential lines. The bureau asked for comments by April 6, replies by April 24. Mammoth Mountain Ski Area sought a ruling from the FCC on a 2012 order under the 1991 Telephone Consumer Protection Act, said a petition for expedited declaratory ruling or forbearance. A class-action lawsuit filed in October against Mammoth alleged that the California ski resort area violated the TCPA when it made autodialed calls advertising season passes to its past customers, the filing said. Prior to the 2012 ruling, it was legal for a business to use prerecorded messages to call phone numbers for commercial purposes as long as it had prior express consent. The ski area said that because it had phone numbers legally prior to the 2012 order, it should be able to legally make prerecorded calls to those numbers. Mammoth said it's "improper for the FCC's rules to retroactively impair these vested rights." If Mammoth is found liable for violating the TCPA, it said it could face penalties of tens of millions of dollars.