The Federal Communications Commission today finalized an order that clarifies how businesses must handle revocation requests from consumers under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Under the law, a bank or other business must have the prior express consent of the called party to place an autodialed or prerecorded voice call. In 2015, the FCC stated that a consumer can revoke consent through “any reasonable means.” The broad revocation right has made it difficult for banks to design efficient methods for processing customers’ revocation requests and has led plaintiffs’ firms to generate lawsuits alleging customers received calls from their bank after revoking their consent.
In Friday’s order finalizing a proposal issued last spring, the FCC adopted a standardized list of the specific words that consumers may use to revoke consent via a reply text message to ensure that automated systems can process revocation requests. Specifically, the use of the words “stop,” “quit,” “end,” “revoke,” “opt out,” “cancel” or “unsubscribe” via reply text message would constitute a reasonable means to revoke consent. If the recipient uses a different word to revoke consent, a “totality of the circumstances” standard would govern whether the consumer’s use of alternative words or phrases constitutes a reasonable means to revoke consent.
In a change from its proposal, the FCC held that callers must process revocation requests within 10 business days—not 24 hours—after the American Bankers Association had urged the FCC to provide a reasonable time period for businesses to process revocations. The agency also clarified that a one-time text message to confirm the scope of a consumer’s revocation request does not violate the TCPA as long as the confirmation text does not include marketing information and the text is sent within five minutes of receipt of the opt-out request, unless a legal requirement compels the company’s delay in sending the confirmation text.
