The Federal Communications Commission’s (“FCC” or “Commission) Enforcement Bureau (“Bureau”) recently issued an Order that notifies and directs all U.S.-based voice service providers (‘VSPs”) to take immediate steps to effectively mitigate suspected illegal robocall traffic made by or on behalf of the following: (1) Urth Access, LLC (Urth Access); (2) Fire Data LLC; (3) US Acquisitions LLC; (4) Dawood & Dawood; (5) Dawood and Company; (6) their individual associates; and (7) associated entities (collectively, the “Student Loan Robocall Operation”).

The Bureau asserts that it is providing the necessary notice and identifying information to VSPs to enable them to locate illegal traffic and take steps to mitigate it. Once notified, a VSP must:

(1) promptly investigate the identified traffic; and
(2) immediately report the results of its investigation to the Bureau, including:

(a) any steps the VSP has taken to mitigate the identified traffic; or
(b) explain why the VSP has reasonably concluded that the identified calls were not illegal, and what steps it took to reach that conclusion.

The Bureau provides a safe harbor for the reporting portion of the obligations it imposed via the Order. A VSP is not required to file a report with the Bureau if it terminates its customer relationship with the Student Loan Robocall Operations or blocks all traffic from Urth Access. But, if a VSP, after investigating of the suspected illegal robocall traffic as described in the Order does not terminate a customer relationship or block the traffic, it will be required to provide a written report to the Bureau with the results of its investigation.

Voice service providers who fail to comply with these obligations and fail to take all necessary steps to avoid carrying out suspected illegal robocall traffic made by/on behalf of these individuals and entities may be deemed to have knowingly and willfully engaged in transmitting unlawful robocalls.

We Are Standing By To Guide Your Company’s Compliance Efforts!
Given the complexity and evolving nature of the FCC’s rules, regulations and industry policies & procedures around Robocall Mitigation and Compliance issues and anticipating the torrent of client questions and concerns, The CommLaw Group formed a “Robocall Mitigation Response Team” to help clients (old and new) tackle their unique responsibilities. As such, we are in a solid position to discuss our clients’ businesses and how the proposed rules may affect them. Because the FCC is required to consider and report on all comments, your voice counts. We urge you to contact us soon to discuss how to target your comments in the most effective and economical way.

Please contact The CommLaw Group’s Robocall Mitigation Response Team:
Michael Donahue: (703)-714-1319 or mpd@CommLawGroup.com
Ron Quirk: (703)-714-1305 or req@CommLawGroup.com
Rob Jackson: (703)-714-1316 or rhj@CommLawGroup.com