TCPA-Whitepaper

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FREE WHITEPAPER:
The Complete Guide to
TCPA Compliance

The Complete Guide to TCPA Compliance
This guide is not a substitute for legal advice. Any questions pertaining to your business should be directed to an attorney
Background
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) has received a lot of buzz
in the past year. Prompted by changes to legislation in October 2013 and a
surge in TCPA lawsuit cases, any business that dials a consumer telephone
number is at risk of violation.
Understanding the new legislation and maintaining strict compliance prac-
tices will reduce the chances of your business being the target of a devas-
tating lawsuit.
TCPA Regulations
In 1991, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted the
Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), issuing rules and regulations
surrounding telemarketing calls, faxes, pre-recorded messages, and auto-
dialed calls
Terms defined according to TCPA regulations:
• Telemarketing (Telephone Solicitation): initiation of a telephone call
or message (including SMS/text message) for the purpose of encour-
aging the purchase or rental of property, goods or services
• Autodialer or ATDS (Automatic Telephone Dialing System): equip-
ment which has the capacity to
- Store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a
random or sequential number generator and
- To dial such numbers
• Robocall: a telephone call that utilizes an autodialer to transmit a pre-
recorded telemarketing message
• Established Business Relationship (EBR): a relationship between a
person or entity and business subscriber
1
2
Why have changes
to TCPA legislation
recently come to the
forefront?
90%
57%
41%
2%
of American adults
own cell phones. Of
these, 58% are smart
phones
of Americans still
have landlines. Nearly
half are unlisted or
unpublished
of American households
are wireless-only
have neither a wireless
or landline telephone
400
300
200
100
0
1999 2009 2014
100
50
0
January 2010 September 2014
An influx of consumer complaints
surrounding telemarketing calls, spe-
cifically to wireless phones, prompted
recent changes to TCPA regulations.
34M
203M
Number of Cell Phone Users in the U.S.
Number of U.S. Directory
Assistance Landlines
84M
66M
American Wireless and Landline
Telephone Statistics
334M

October 2013 Changes to TCPA Legislation
The newest changes to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Telephone Consumer Protection
Act (TCPA) of 1991 were implemented on October 16, 2013. Changes include more defined regulations sur-
rounding autodialed/robodialed telemarketing calls and pre-recorded messages, specific to both landline
and wireless telephone lines including:
• Prior express written consent is required for all autodialed or
prerecorded telemarketing calls or text messages to wireless
numbers and pre-recorded calls made to residential landlines,
with the exception of informational calls, such as those from non-
profit organizations, and calls for other noncommercial purposes
(informational messages i.e. school closings).
Consent must be unambiguous, with the consumer receiving clear
disclosure that they will receive future calls that deliver prerecorded
messages by or on behalf of a specific seller
• Specific requirements enabling consumers to opt-out of future
robocalls during a robocall
• Established Business Relationship exemption for pre-recorded telemarketing calls to residential landlines will be elimi-
nated, requiring companies to obtain express written consent from their consumers to receive pre-recorded telemarket-
ing messages. EBR still applies to Do-Not-Call regulations
In addition, the FTC established additional regulations regarding calls that distributed messages not contain-
ing marketing content:
• “The Commission also exempted from the section 227(b)(1)(B) prohibition on prerecorded voice message calls to resi-
dences calls not made for commercial purposes and calls made for commercial purposes that do not contain an un-
solicited advertisement. Because the Commission determined that debt collection calls are not telemarketing calls, it
concluded that a specific exemption for debt collection calls was not warranted”
• “Additionally, we note that many commenters expressed concern about obtaining written consent for certain types of
autodialed or prerecorded calls, including debt collection calls, airline notification calls, bank account fraud alerts, school
and university notifications, research or survey calls, and wireless usage notifications.
Again, such calls, to the extent that they do not contain telemarketing messages, would not require any consent when
made to residential wireline consumers, but require either written or oral consent if made to wireless consumers and
other specified recipients”
3

Safe Harbor Period
Due to changes in telephone portability, consumers are able to change their
telephone connection from a landline to a wireless phone while keeping the
same telephone number.
Ported telephone numbers can be identified as a landline in the morning, and
wireless or VoIP line later the same day, making it harder for telemarketers to
maintain confidence in connection type.
Because of this challenge, the FCC has adopted guidelines establishing a
“safe harbor” period for ported telephone numbers.
64.1200 Delivery restrictions.
(a) No person or entity may:
(1) Except as provided in paragraph (a)(2) of this section, initiate any tele-
phone call (other than a call made for emergency purposes or is made with
the prior express consent of the called party) using an automatic telephone
dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice;
(iii) To any telephone number assigned to a paging service, cellular telephone
service, specialized mobile radio service, or other radio common carrier ser-
vice, or any service for which the called party is charged for the call.
(iv) A person will not be liable for violating the prohibition in paragraph (a)(1)
(iii) of this section when the call is placed to a wireless number that has been
ported from wireline service and such call is a voice call; not knowingly made
to a wireless number; and made within 15 days of the porting of the number
from wireline to wireless service, provided the number is not already on the
national do-not-call registry or caller’s company-specific do-not-call list.
While no recent court rulings have specifically referenced the 15-day ported
line timeframe, it has yet to be determined how the courts might apply this
rule during litigation.
Given the severity of the fines, all businesses who dial consumer telephone
numbers should proceed with caution. Current best practices for companies
engaged in telemarketing, text campaigns, and collections include perform-
ing daily or per-campaign identification of wireless numbers and current
phone owner.
Visit http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?rgn=div6&node=47:3.0.1.1.11.12 for full details
What is Wireless Local Number
Portability (LNP)?
Wireless LNP is a wireless consumer’s
ability to change service providers
within the same local area and still
keep the same phone number.
Wireless LNP allows consumers to
switch from one wireless carrier to
another within the same general
metropolitan area. It does not allow
consumers to keep the same phone
number when moving to a new town
or city.
Wireless LNP also allows consumers
to move a phone number from a
wireline phone to a wireless phone
in some cases.
4
visit http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/wireless-
local-number-portability-wlnp for complete
information on telephone portability

Increase in TCPA Lawsuit Filings
As a result of TCPA legislation, there has been a significant increase in TCPA-related lawsuit filings.
According to WebRecon, LLC*, from January through September 2014, 1,900 new TCPA lawsuits have been
filed, a 30% increase from 2013. Notable settlements have taken place, with record-breaking, multi-million
dollar fines.
Fines
Fines for TCPA violation range from $500 - $1,500 per call or text, based on whether the business inadvertently
or knowingly violated the regulations.
However, in recent investigations, the FCC has imposed a $16,000 per call/text fine in two separate cases to
companies who continued to violate both TCPA and FCC rules after an initial citation was imposed. These
fines were levied directly by the FCC as part of their process to investigate consumer complaints.
Dialing Services: fined $3MM for 184 prerecorded messages to wireless numbers, after an
initial investigation/citation in 2012
Sprint: fined $7.5MM for failing to capture and honor consumers’ do not call and do not text
preferences under the TCPA, after an initial investigation in 2009 (leading to the 2011 Consent
Decree, requiring Sprint to report to any non-compliance the Bureau for the two years follow-
ing the decree)
*Visit: http://dev.webrecon.com/debt-collection-litigation-cfpb-complaint-statistics-august-2014/ for more details on TCPA cases filed monthly
$$$
$$$$
$$$$
5
6
250
200
150
100
50
0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept
208
222 224 235
216 211
197
189 193
163159160
141
160
132
110
143
163
2013/2014 TCPA Lawsuit Filings

Additional Key Rulings
In 2014, several notable cases have been settled for violating the TCPA. These cases alone have resulted
in over $200MM dollars in settlement claims:
Capital One (No. 1:12-cv-10064): $75M for autodialing wire-
less phones and using prerecorded voice messages without
consent
Jiffy Lube (No. 3:11-MD-02261): $47M for unsolicited text
messages
Bank of America (No. 11-cv-2390): 6 class-action lawsuits,
$32M for autodialing wireless phones and using prerecorded
voice messages without consent
Sallie Mae (No. 10-cv-00198): $24.2M for sending unsolicited
text messages and autodialing wireless phones
Steve Madden (No. 2:11-cv-05935): $10M for sending unsolic-
ited text messages
Domino’s (No. 10-cv-349): $10M for sending unsolicited text
messages; autodialing wireless phones and using prerecord-
ed voice messages without consent
Discover Financial Services (No. 3:12-cv-1118): $8.7M for au-
todialing and using prerecorded voice messages without con-
sent
Vivint Home Security (No. 12-cv-61826): $6M for autodialing
wireless and DNC phones without consent
Fifth Third Bank (No. 1:12-cv-1612): $4.5M for autodialing
wireless phones and using prerecorded voice messages with-
out consent
$75M
$47M
$32M
$24.2M
$10M
$10M
$8.7M
$6M
$4.5M
These cases [alone] have resulted in over
$200 million dollars in settlement claims.
“
“
7

How Businesses can Mitigate Risk8
Manually dial telephone numbers
While this is not the most cost-effective or efficient option, manually dialing tele-
phones with a live operator greatly diminishes the likelihood of TCPA violation.
Obtain consent to send autodialed, pre-recorded messages
Establish a process to obtain and document express consent for consumers to
opt-in to autodialed and pre-recorded messages, both electronically for online
applications and numerically for phone-initiated consent. Capture complete
supporting documentation including screenshots, IP address, date, and time for
all express consent documentation.
Provide consumers with a clear and conspicuous opt-out option
Make certain to provide consumers with a clear way to opt-out of future com-
munication. This includes providing opt-out information for consumers who pre-
viously opted-in to autodialed and/or pre-recorded messages. Maintain docu-
mented consent and opt-out information for a minimum of 4 years, which is the
federal statute of limitation for TCPA lawsuits (28 U.S.C. § 1658[a]).
Identify phone type (landline vs. wireless)
Scrub consumer phone numbers daily or prior to each calling campaign to en-
sure you have accurately identified landline and wireless phone numbers in your
database. Send your file of phone numbers to a provider with access to the live
telephone company databases, who can append up-to-the-minute phone type.
Identify ported telephone numbers
Have your provider process current telephone numbers to identify phones that
have recently been ported from landline to wireless numbers. Remove all num-
bers that have been ported from landline to wireless from your ATDS.
Confirm phone owner
Verify the phone owner name is the same as the person who provided consent
to call and/or leave pre-recorded voice messages. Have your data provider vali-
date current phone ownership information or append new phone owner name
(if information has changed) to ensure compliance.
MANUALLY
DIAL
OBTAIN
CONSENT
PROVIDE
OPT-OUT
IDENTIFY
PHONE
TYPE
VALIDATE
PORTED
PHONES
CONFIRM
PHONE
OWNER

For purposes of TCPA compliance, your provider’s database should be updated,
at a minimum, daily. Some providers are able to update as frequently as the live,
telco databases update their information which can be several times throughout
the day.
Key industry providers are able to access data from the live, telephone company
databases. This information is updated several times throughout the day and is
the most updated information available to telemarketers.
Some TCPA compliance services offer a quick flagging of phone type. They will
indicate landline or wireless, but not provide further information on the owner of
the telephone number.
Frequently, phone numbers are reassigned from one owner to another, with a
short window of non-connectivity. To ensure compliance with the TCPA, full own-
ership information should also be validated, verifying that the person who pro-
vided you with express consent is still the same owner of the phone number.
Several key best practices include:
1. Validate that the owner of the phone number who provided consent is still
the same phone owner. If the owners’ names are different, remove the num-
ber from your ATDS
2. Verify the phone type to remove wireless numbers from the ATDS. Keep only
wireless numbers in the ATDS where consent has been documented
3. Remove disconnected phone numbers from your system to improve call pro-
ductivity
4. Update all records in your database with current phone owner information for
improved consumer identification
9 Choosing a Provider for Telephone Processing
How often is your telephone
database updated?
Do you have access to the
live, telco databases?
Do you have the associated
name and address information
for the owner of the telephone
number?
A key component in maintaining compliance with the TCPA is the ability to identify phone type and
owner of the telephone number. Key questions to ask your provider include:
What are the best practices for
data scrubbing among other
companies looking to maintain
TCPA compliance?

An average of 50-60,000 phone numbers are ported from landline to wireless and
VoiP each week. As part of the scrubbing process, your provider should be able to
identify and flag numbers that used to be landline and have recently been ported
to a wireless or VoIP number.
To maintain compliance with the “safe harbor” period, you want to be certain
you are identifying these ported numbers within a 15-day window of line change.
In TCPA, as well as other data services, providers are often able to assign a con-
fidence score, indicating their level of confidence in the returned data. This pro-
vides flexibility for telemarketers in determining which numbers to call and which
they should steer away from to ensure compliance.
Depending on the frequency and timing of your campaigns, you will want to
understand if there is an option to implement a real-time data feed, or process
batches of data through an append and validation tool.
Typically, real-time data has a higher cost than a batch processing tool; however, it
is the fastest way to validate data. If you choose to utilize a batch process, ensure
turnaround times will meet your campaign expectations for data delivery.
Some providers have automated platforms that process data 24 hours a day while
others may rely on manual processing, thus increasing turnaround time for receiv-
ing data.
Some companies institute moderate to heavy development charges to imple-
ment a new batch or real-time data program. Other providers will work with clients
to customize both common and specialized data searches that help accomplish
specific objectives, at no or minimal cost.
It is important to understand all associated costs with implementation of a new
data service or program.
What is your level of
confidence in the accuracy of
the provided information?
Is your information available
in real-time or through a
batch processing application?
9
Choosing a Provider for Telephone Processing
(continued)
Is there a development cost
to set up your batch or real-
time data service?
Are you able to identify
telephone numbers that have
been ported from landline to
wireless?

About Infutor Data Solutions
Infutor Data Solutions, Inc. is a privately-held corporation whose primary focus is creating and maintaining
the most accurate and complete data assets available. Compiled from public and proprietary information,
these data assets are highly regarded in the information industry and are used by many of the industry’s
largest information resellers, fraud and analytics firms, collection specialists, and skip tracing agencies.
Our clients include 3 of the 5 largest marketing service providers/agencies in the United States, 2 of the
3 major credit bureaus, one of country’s largest non-profit organizations, and Fortune 1000 skip tracing,
fraud and analytics providers.
Infutor is a key TCPA compliance partner, compiling over 500MM telephone records, including direct con-
nection to the live telco databases. Combined with our massive Consumer Referential Database (CRD) of
535MM consumers and 1.4B current and historical address records, Infutor’s solutions are also used as a
foundation for applications in:
• Identity validation and verification
• Fraud detection and management
• Skip tracing
• Direct marketing
• Retail consumer acquisition/retention
• Database management
Data is accessible through on-site licensing, automated batch processing, real-time XML data transactions,
and online query and order systems, all of which have been developed and maintained by Infutor.
• Inbound call center identification and call
routing
• Enhanced/proprietary change of address
processing (PCOA)
• Corporate data integration (CDI)
• Law enforcement searches
More Information
a
i
2017 South Route 59
Plainfield, IL 60586
www.linkedin.com/company/infutor-data-solutions
www.facebook.com/pages/Infutor-Data-Solutions/
190927214263550
plus.google.com/+Infutor
www.infutor.com
sales@infutor.com
(312) 348-7900

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