In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s Facebook ruling last summer (which generally loosened the restrictions on an “autodialer” definition), there has been an exponential rise in State-level litigation and legislation as certain states step in to “fix” the SCOTUS ruling.
Florida was the first state to act in 2021 when it expanded its Florida Do Not Call Act and the Florida Telemarketing Act by imposing stricter restrictions on automated calling, limiting the number of contacts within 24 hours, and prohibiting dialing times. It also made provisions for consumers to take action against violators. We’ll continue to update this post as more states follow suit.
Washington
On Friday, May 27th, Washington’s Governor Jay Inslee signed the Telephone Consumer Privacy Act (TCPA) Bill to go into effect as soon as June 9th, 2022. Although similar in many ways to Florida’s and Oklahoma’s new solicitation bills, this new bill places a less rigorous standard on consent required.
The Telephone Consumer Privacy Act in Washington outlines the following statutes:
- It governs “telephone solicitation,” defined as an “unsolicited initiation of a telephone call…for the purpose of encouraging the person to purchase property, goods, or services or soliciting donations.”
- The law does exempt calls made in response to a request or inquiry by the called party, including calls regarding an item purchased within the past 12 months.
- Exemptions compared to Oklahoma’s and Florida’s bills are otherwise limited.
- Within the first 30 seconds of the call, callers must identify themselves as individuals and the company on whose behalf they are calling.
- If the consumer “states or indicates” they do not want to be called, the calling party may not call again for one year.
- Calls are only permitted between the hours of 8am and 8pm.
- The statutory penalty for repeated damages is $100 per violation.
- The law goes into effect on June 9th, 2022.
Oklahoma
On Friday, May 20th, Oklahoma’s Governor Kevin Stitt signed the Telephone Solicitation Act of 2022.
Oklahoma’s new solicitation law is undoubtedly made in Florida’s image and outlines the following:
- Defines an autodialer in a much broader way than the Facebook ruling by prohibiting calling via any automated system without the prior written consent of the called party. Please note that the law exempts calls to consumers where an existing business relationship exists.
- The law considers anyone with an Oklahoma area code to be presumed to be an Oklahoma resident.
- No more than three calls can be made in a 24-hour period.
- Calls are only permitted between the hours of 8am and 8pm.
- Damages of $500 per violation can be recovered via private action and are trebled for willful or knowing violations.
- The law goes into effect on November 1st, 2022.
What does this mean for you?
Any Oklahoma and Washington leads in your database should be identified (by area code) and all client campaign cadences and call scripts should be updated to comply with the details of each state ruling. Your organization needs to move quickly to address the Washington ruling that goes into effect on June 9th, 2022. As for the Oklahoma ruling, your organization has until November to make any changes.
How does LQ Digital ensure TCPA compliance?
TCPA compliance is core to every Lead Qualification Solution we deploy for a client:
- We partner with legal experts to ensure we constantly comply with consumer privacy laws.
- We have invested heavily in our platform, LQ Cadence, which allows us to instrument system-level changes across our portfolio of clients rapidly.
- We have built a best-in-class Quality Assurance Team that ensures every agent is trained to deliver not only a TCPA compliant but also a premium customer experience.
- We have over 15 years of experience, 30+ million calls, and zero TCPA complaints.
Our clients have peace of mind knowing that every call or SMS outreach campaign to a customer or prospect remains TCPA compliant.
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