Newsroom

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is set to consider an order and further notice of proposed rulemaking (FNPR) related to establishing a safe harbor from liability for voice service providers (VSPs) that block unwanted calls during its meeting July 16.

The Third Report and Order would:

• establish a safe harbor from liability under the Communications Act and Commission rules for terminating voice service providers that block calls based on reasonable analytics designed to identify unwanted calls, so long as those take into account information from the STIR/SHAKEN call authentication framework;
• establish a safe harbor enabling voice service providers to block traffic from bad-actor voice service providers that, either negligently or intentionally, continue to allow unwanted calls to traverse their networks; and
• require blocking providers to furnish a single point of contact to resolve unintended or inadvertent blocking, and emphasize that they should make all reasonable efforts to ensure that critical calls, such as those from Public Safety Answering Points, are not blocked and that they never block calls to 911.

The FNPR would:

• seek comment on how the commission can build on the Third Report and Order’s call blocking steps and further implement the TRACED Act;
• propose to establish an affirmative obligation for voice service providers to respond to certain traceback requests, mitigate bad traffic, and take affirmative measures to prevent customers from originating illegal calls; and
• propose to require terminating voice service providers that block calls to provide a list of blocked calls to their customers on request and at no additional charge.

The FCC in April issued a report and order to require voice service providers to implement STIR/SHAKEN – a caller identification framework meant to target illegal robocalls – by June 30, 2021, and many have already begun to implement the framework.

NAFCU – both independently and in coordination with other financial trade associations – has urged the FCC to initiate a rulemaking to implement other provisions of the TRACED Act that require the FCC to address erroneous blocking or mislabeling of legitimate calls. NAFCU has also sought additional transparency and consistency in call labeling and blocking.

NAFCU also reiterated concerns with the framework to commissioners' staff during several meetings in March.

Additionally, NAFCU previously filed a petition and encouraged the FCC it to expedite efforts to ensure financial institutions can contact consumers on matters related to the coronavirus pandemic during the national emergency. NCUA Chairman Rodney Hood voiced support for the request in a recent letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. The CFPB has also backed this request. 

NAFCU has actively worked with the FCC on efforts to modernize the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) for many years, and will continue its advocacy to ensure credit unions can contact their members regarding important, time-sensitive information, without fear of frivolous litigation.