Recently, on December 13, 2023, the FCC officially passed a rule change with a 4 to 1 vote, requiring direct, one-to-one consent for lead generators on relevant offers. This amendment to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is expected to bring incremental improvements in consumer intent and ethically compliant lead generation within the legal industry as well as other industries as well. However, it's important to note that while this ruling does shed light on the darker corners of the lead generation, it may not be a foolproof solution. However, this surely should affect how law firms go about reviewing marketing vendors used for lead generation as well as establishing internal policies for choosing their marketing agencies. Recently, law firms have come under fire for using bad non-TCPA compliant marketing vendors that has led to litigation and let to the entire legal marketing industry pause.
During the FCC's December Open Meeting, as predicted, the one to one rule was established.
The edited TCPA express consent rules now specify that calls must be made using information provided by a consumer to a specific provider. This addresses the common practice of obtaining consent for multiple companies to contact consumers, often seen in comparison shopping websites and co-registration advertising.
Furthermore, the new rule mandates that regulated calls made by goods or service providers must be "topically and logically" related to the transaction that led to the consent. This aims to ensure that consumers receive relevant and expected communications.
Despite these positive changes, the mention of potential workarounds and creative tactics to bypass the rule change underscores the ongoing challenges in enforcing such regulations effectively. The FCC's efforts reflect a commitment to refining regulations in the dynamic field of lead generation and telemarketing. Whether law firms self-enforce this or not it will likely be enforced by the groups of TCPA wise consumers that are growing every day that are willing to litigate these violations on their own.
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