Comments to the FCC on the Telephone Consumer Protection Act

This letter, submitted by a coalition of major business associations and industry groups, urges the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to promptly clarify the definition of “automatic telephone dialing system” (ATDS) under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The authors argue that the current legal uncertainty—caused by conflicting court interpretations and the FCC’s prior expansive rulings—has led to a patchwork of inconsistent decisions, making compliance difficult for legitimate businesses and impeding their ability to deliver important, time-sensitive communications to consumers.

The coalition emphasizes that the lack of clarity around the ATDS definition has fueled a surge in abusive TCPA litigation, with thousands of lawsuits filed against businesses acting in good faith, often resulting in costly settlements unrelated to actual wrongdoing. They contend that this environment discourages companies from sending critical notifications—such as prescription reminders, fraud alerts, and utility outage updates—out of fear of litigation, ultimately harming consumers who rely on such communications.

To address these issues, the letter calls on the FCC to adopt a clear, statutory interpretation of ATDS: limiting it to equipment that uses a random or sequential number generator to store or produce numbers and dials them without human intervention. The coalition asserts that this approach aligns with congressional intent, would provide much-needed certainty for businesses and consumers, and would allow the FCC to continue its efforts to combat illegal robocalls without hindering legitimate communications.