As late as last calendar month , FCC Chairman Ajit Pai was on the Fox News Channelboastingabout having inflict on robocalls some of the “ large amercement in the FCC ’s history . ” Documents obtained this workweek by reporters at the Wall Street Journal , however , put the authority ’s milquetoast enforcement in a more veritable light .
As the paper account :
Since 2015 , the Federal Communications Commission has ordered violators of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act , a law regularize teleselling and robodialing , to pay $ 208.4 million . That sum includes so - call forfeiture order in case involving robocalling , Do Not Call register and telephone ingathering violations .
$ 208.4 million is a lot of hypothetical money . But unfortunately , the paper also describe that platter show the federal agency has manage to call for less than $ 7,000 . Put otherwise , the FCC has only manage to collect 0.003 percent of the fine it ’s imposed in the last three - to - four twelvemonth .
One reason might be that the individuals and organizations being fin do n’t have $ 200 million place around . But if that were the case , other regulator targeting robocalls would be have similar troubles . That does n’t come along to be the case .
As the Journal mark , the Federal Trade Commission , which this weekshut down four robocalling outfitsbehind billions of illegal and predatory calls , has collect some $ 121 million since 2004 . ( allow , it had an additional tenner to skim in those fines , but nevertheless , $ 7000 seems a picayune pitiful . )
The fault here does n’t repose entirely on the FCC ’s shoulders . The agency trust on the Justice Department to actually accumulate the money , as it has no authority to do so on its own . The DOJ is clear degenerate the ball .
Margot Saunders , senior counsel for the National Consumer Law Center , characterise public enforcement to the Journal as “ a joke . ”
The Great American Scourge — as I choose to call it — is steady intensifying , with U.S. occupant experiencing no less than a46 percentincrease in robocalls in 2018 alone . The FCC itselfcited a studyrecently that estimates roughly one-half of all calls made to cellular phone in the U.S. this year will be spam . Globally , robocalls grew 325 percent last class .
There is plenty of blame to go around , sure . But until the government take some concrete steps to finish the scourge , one thing seems obvious : The FCC chairwoman should , at the very least , refrain from bragging about his agency ’s meaningless robocall fines on TV .
[ Wall Street Journal ]
Ajit Pairobocalls
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