The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) of 1991 was enacted to regulate the explosive growth of the telemarketing industry, the use of automatic telephone dialing systems and artificial or prerecorded voice messages,and the transmission of unsolicited advertisements via facsimile machines. Since then, numerous regulations have been introduced by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to enhance the TCPA provisions.
The TCPA provisions provide for statutory damages of $500 per each violation. Up to $1000 can be added per each violation when the violator’s conduct was willful. Under the TCPA, telemarketers are prohibited from directing automatically dialed phone calls or text messages to consumers, unless they obtain prior express consent, and in certain circumstances the consent must expressed in writing. Regardless the penalty, robocalls still represent a nuisance for consumers constantly harassed by telemarketers. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission annual National Do Not Call Registry Data Book for Fiscal Year 2016 shows 5,340,234 consumer complaints for robocalls.
Scott D. Owens has been litigating TCPA cases for more than nine years and is generally regarded as one of the leading authorities in the State of Florida on the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. He and his team are dedicated to stopping robocallers, junk faxers, and text message spammers and obtaining relief for those consumers whose lives are interrupted by these unlawful communications. Mr. Owens was one of the first attorneys in the State of Florida to file suit for spam text messages. In 2012, as a pro bono service to the community, Scott D. Owens located and filed suit against those behind the dreaded “we buy junk cars” text messages, the second largest spamming campaign in the United States at the time. The messages suddenly stopped after Mr. Owens filed suit. ;-)
