No more mulligans--FCC drops robocall warnings

The Federal Communications Commission announced it will no longer warn robocallers before issuing penalties. This change was enabled by the TRACED Act.

Before the TRACED Act was enacted, the FCC was required by law to issue warnings—formerly called citations—before they could move forward with an enforcement action. And when they proceeded with an enforcement action, it could be based on violations that occurred after the warning had been issued. The Commission had two years to act on these violations.

The TRACED Act changed all that:

• The FCC can now take enforcement action without warning.
• Fines have been increased.
• The Commission has four years to act against violations.

“Robocall scam operators don’t need a warning these days to know what they are doing is illegal, and this FCC has long disliked the statutory requirement to grant them mulligans,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “We have taken unprecedented action against spoofing violations in recent years and removing this outdated ‘warning’ requirement will help us speed up enforcement to protect consumers.”