FCC Sets Effective Date for New TCPA Opt-out Rules Governing Robocalls and Robotexts

As a follow up to our prior advisory,  the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) has announced that the effective date of the rules adopted in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) Report and Order governing robocalls and robotext messages will be April 11, 2025.

In February of this year, the FCC issued the Report and Order adopting new rules to further protect consumers from unwanted robocalls and robotext messages under the TCPA. The Report and Order was summarized and published in the Federal Register as a Final Rule on March 5, 2024. At the time, only the addition of one provision was deemed to be effective on April 4, 2024. That provision codified the Soundbite Declaratory Ruling which clarified that a one-time text message confirming a consumer’s request that no further text messages be sent does not violate the TCPA or the FCC’s rules as long as the confirmation text meets certain requirements. The rest of the amendments were delayed until a review could be performed by the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”). The FCC has announced that the OMB has completed its review and therefore the rest of the rules will take effect April 11, 2025.

Notable changes in the Report and Order that will be effective as of April 11, 2025 are as follows:

• New rule that makes clear that consumers may revoke prior express consent for autodialed or prerecorded or artificial voice calls and autodialed texts in any reasonable manner that clearly expresses a desire not to receive further calls or text messages;
• Amendment to existing rules to require that callers honor company-specific do-not-call and revocation-of-consent requests within a reasonable time from the date that the request is made, not to exceed 10 business days after receipt of the request.

Please see our prior advisory for a further discussion of the details of these changes. All companies should take note and ensure opt-out procedures comply with the new rules as of April 11, 2025.

This advisory is an announcement of the effective date of the Report and Order and is not intended as legal advice. The Report and Order is very detailed and should be reviewed in its totality. If you have any questions about these TCPA amendments, please feel free to contact Joseph D. Simon at (516) 357-3710 or via email at jsimon@cullenllp.com, Kevin Patterson at (516) 296-9196 or via email at kpatterson@cullenllp.com, Elizabeth A. Murphy at (516) 296-9154, or via email at emurphy@cullenllp.com, David Curatolo at (516) 357-3773, or via email at dcuratolo@cullenllp.com, or Gabriela Morales at (516) 357-3850 or via email at gmorales@cullenllp.com.