FCC's new robocall rules set to take effect in 2025

The Federal Communications Commission has set the ball in motion to make it easier for customers to opt out of automated calls.

Updates to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act aimed at simplifying customers' ability to opt out of robocalls and robotexts will take effect on April 11, 2025.

New rules should make customers' decision making on what robocalls or texts they want to receive more straightforward.

Specifically, customers have the right to refuse contact even if they had previously agreed to it, and they can communicate their decision in any manner they prefer.

Additionally, robocallers and texters will have to honor do-not-call requests in no longer than 10 business days from receipt. Changes to the guidelines will also codify a 2012 ruling that clarified that a one-time text confirming a customer's opt out request does not violate the TCPA.

TCPA, enacted in 1991, prohibits calls to cell phones using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice without the prior express consent of the called party. Fines for such calls range from $500 and go up to $1,500 per violation. 

In the world of mortgage lending, borrowers and prospective home buyers have been inundated with such calls. As a result, litigation has sprouted against originators such as Loandepot, Freedom Mortgage and Rocket Mortgage, which are accused of such practices. Mortgage lenders found guilty of violating the FCC's rule have faced hefty fines.

Last year, Cardinal Financial agreed to dole out $7.2 million to settle a class-action lawsuit arising from alleged violations of the TCPA. Approximately 141,049 members were included as part of the lawsuit. Meanwhile, in 2022, real estate company Keller Williams agreed to pay $40 million to settle a case after it was accused of making unsolicited calls to consumers on the Do Not Call Registry. 

Americans on average received around 3.34 billion robocalls in December 2023, amounting to about 17 spam calls for every person in the country, according to spam call blocking app Robokiller. 

Apart from robocalls and texts, consumers in the housing industry also have been inundated with trigger lead calls. But that practice, too, may be more restricted soon.

Legislation regulating the use of trigger leads, long a hot button topic in the mortgage industry, has come closer to becoming law as it has been included as an amendment to one of the federal budget bills.

The Senate's version of the National Defense Authorization Act includes a rule that bars the furnishing of a credit report pulled for a mortgage loan to anyone else unless the consumer approves. The language also allows for the report to be provided to the current mortgage lender and/or servicer on an existing loan. The bill also has an exemption for banks and credit unions.

Mortgage brokers in particular have long complained that leads from credit inquiries, which bureaus sell to data brokers and lenders, results in a barrage of intrusive consumer marketing.