Well, folks, we’ve been carefully watching the status of the hugely important Florida robocall bill–known as the mini-TCPA.

As we’ve reported earlier, the bill would add a private right of action to the existing Florida bill, and require express written consent for any call made with an automated dialing system–even if a consumer asks for information or you are communicating with an existing customer.

The last three weeks have made for high drama as the bill seemed stuck with the requisite legislative Officers and was not presented to the governor despite passage months ago. It looked, perhaps, as though the bill may wither on the vine.

Nope.

Just today the bill has been presented to Governor DeSantis. That means he has 15 days to veto the bill, otherwise, it becomes law.

Notably, the bill was scheduled to go into effect July 1, 2021, i.e. on Thursday. If he signs the bill by then the effective date will be preserved.

Otherwise, the bill will become effective–assuming the guy doesn’t veto it (which would be awesome but won’t happen)–no later than July 13, 2021.

To quote Penny, “boo.”

It's time to get your ducks in a row, folks. As Queenie said on stage in Austin–this is why you don’t want to wholesale change your practices following Facebook. Continuing to obtain PROPER express written consent remains the gold standard. And if you intend to make calls without such consent, be sure you’re using a TRULY manual process with a human selection of number sequencing at point of dial.