Joint Trades Statement for the Record - House E&C TCPA Hearing

Statement for the Record

 

On behalf of the

 

American Bankers Association

 

Consumer Bankers Association

 

Credit Union National Association

 

Financial Services Roundtable

 

National Association of Federal Credit Unions

 

before the

 

Committee on Energy and Commerce

Communications and Technology Subcommittee

United States House of Representatives

September 22, 2016

 

 

 

Chairman Walden, Ranking Member Eshoo, and members of the Committee, the American Bankers Association (ABA),1 Consumer Bankers Association (CBA),2 Credit Union National Association (CUNA),3 Financial Services Roundtable (FSR),4 and National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU)5 (collectively, the Associations) appreciates the opportunity to submit a statement for the record for this hearing on the harm to consumers resulting from the outdated Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). As you are aware, that statute prohibits, with limited exceptions, telephone calls to residential lines and calls and text messages to mobile phones using an automatic telephone dialing system (autodialer) unless the caller has the prior express consent of the called party.

 

The Associations commend the Committee for holding this hearing. As we indicated in our letter for the record for the Senate Commerce hearing on May 18, 2016, reform of the TCPA is urgently needed. Enacted 25 years ago to limit aggressive telemarketing and secondarily, to protect the nascent wireless phone industry, the TCPA was designed to provide consumers with a right to pursue an individual claim against an unlawful caller in small claims court and without the need for an attorney. Since then, the TCPA has been interpreted by the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) to apply, potentially, to any dialing technology more advanced than a rotary phone and to impose liability for calls to numbers for which consent has been obtained, but the number has been reassigned unbeknownst to the caller. With statutory damages of up to $1,500 per call, any call alleged to have been made using an autodialer and that is inadvertently made to a wireless number without documented consent can result in a class action lawsuit with a damage claim in the millions, if not billions, of dollars.6 While the total dollar value of these class action lawsuits can be staggering, and frequently generate millions in fees for the attorneys that pursue the cases, these lawsuits rarely accomplish a substantial recovery for consumers. As the attached chart of recent TCPA settlements from one financial institution demonstrates, the median amount awarded to consumers would have been $7.70 if all class members submitted a claim...(Continue Reading)