The FCC has ended its historic practice of warning "most" robocallers before issuing penalties for breaking the law of harassing consumers with unwanted calls. No more.
Such warnings were required, but no longer are after the TRACED Act passed Congress last December.
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“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.
He said removing the "outdated warning" requirement helps in the FCC's ongoing effort to crack down on spoofing, including mandating the STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication and allowing for default robocall blocking.
The FCC has also extended the statute of limitations for fines for spoofing and violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) from a maximum of two years to four. It also increases the maximum fines--an additional $10,000 per call--for intentional robocall violations.
