ABA joined a broad coalition of trade associations in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission this week asking the FCC to protect outbound calls placed by banks and other legitimate institutions from telephone companies’ call-blocking programs. The associations, which also met with FCC staff earlier in the week, raised concerns that legitimate phone numbers continue to be incorrectly labeled as spam or nuisance and calls from those numbers are being blocked.
To ensure legitimate calls are not blocked, the FCC should require telephone companies to provide notification of mislabeling and blocking and to provide a robust challenge mechanism that permits a legitimate business whose calls are being blocked to have the block removed promptly, the groups said. They also recommended that telephone companies be required to share information with each other on phone numbers that have been mislabeled or mistakenly blocked and also report that information to the FCC.
