World421_TG_01

We just received a Civil Investigative Demand from the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) regarding our text marketing campaign to promote our reverse mortgage product.  

The interrogatories indicate that we utilized an automated telephone dialing system to send text messages to 78,000 seniors without securing their express written consent in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”). 6,430 of those seniors opted out of text communications previously, 526 are on the Do ...

You've asked me to calculate the total maximum amount we may be fined for violating the TCPA by sending unsolicited text messages to 78,000 senior citizens. Please note that my analysis is based upon the assumptions you've provided, namely that we are liable for utilizing an automated telephone dialing system within the meaning of the TCPA and that we did not obtain express written consent from the recipients before sending the text messages.

The total maximum amount we may be fined is $143,949,288 which includes $27,924,288 for 526 violations of the “National Do Not Call Registry”. The fine is $53,088 per violation. It also includes $116,025,000 for 77,350 violations of the TCPA.
- §(b)(3)(B) of the TCPA states that violators are subject to a fine of $500 per violation. 
- §(b)(3)(C) states that if the TCPA is "willfully or knowingly" violated, the amount of the violation may be increased to "not more than 3 times" the (standard violation) amount, meaning $1500.
- multiple violations of TCPA rules do not stack, but fines from “National Do Not Call Registry” and TCPA do stack.
- the 650 text messages sent to notify customers of a data breach fall within an exemption of the TCPA provided in §(b)(2)(B)(i).