The FCC’s critical new TCPA revocation rule is set to go into effect on April 11, 2025– that’s just 45 days from now.

Yes, a consumer will be able to revoke by “any reasonable means” but that is already the case. And yes, a caller will only have ten business days to honor a revocation.

But those are tiny changes compared to the new scope of revocation rules–which is what EVERYBODY needs to be paying attention to right now.

Really the core of the new rule is found in paragraph 30 and 31 of the FCC’s ruling and it boils down to three key provisions:

• “[W]hen a consumer revokes consent with regard to telemarketing robocalls or robotexts, the caller can continue to reach the consumer pursuant to an exempted informational call, which does not require consent, unless and until the consumer separately expresses an intent to opt out of these exempted calls”;
• “If the revocation request is made directly in response to an exempted informational call or text, however, this constitutes an opt-out request from the consumer and all further non-emergency robocalls and robotexts must stop”; and
• “[W]hen consent is revoked in any reasonable manner, that revocation extends to both robocalls and robotexts regardless of the medium used to communicate the revocation of consent.”

Taken together, the FCC’s new scope of consent rules require a “stop” or “do not call” request received in response to an informational or exempted call or text to require communications to stop across all channels for all purposes across the enterprise. 

Insane right?

The only upside is businesses will have a chance to send a one time “clarification” message to try to limit the damage caused by the consumer’s revocation effort. But if a consumer does not respond to the clarification message it is lights out–so crafting brilliantly-worded clarification messages will now be a massively important part of enterprise contact strategy .

Absolutely massive change. And the biggest headache imaginable for large companies.

We break down the massive consequences of the ruling here:

A ton of folks have been asking me whether this ruling is likely to be stayed or vacated like the one-to-one rule was. The truth is, probably not.

The reason is that no one seemed to be paying attention to this ruling before it came out. I have talked with numerous large companies recently that have asked why the trades didn’t do anything to challenge the rule and as far as I can tell nobody but R.E.A.C.H. and USHealth was really paying attention.

I predict there will be some last minute scrambling to try to get the rule stayed but a Hobbs Act appeal (like the one that killed the one-to-one rule) is out of the question as the time for such a challenge ran a couple months back.

R.E.A.C.H. is evaluating seeking a stay in light of Mr. Trump’s recent efforts to seize control over the FCC but we are hoping a different trade will take the lead here as this is less of a lead gen issue and more of an issue for large enterprises with multiple consumer touchpoints.

But with only 45 days to go until the rule becomes effective it is CRITICAL that you folks reach out to us ASAP so we can help before it is too late.

Per usual, however, I will give you some free tips to consider:

1. As noted, work on drafting brilliant clarification messages;
2. Consider moving toward non-regulated technology and human selection systems for your text and call outreach (Safe Select, Drips Initiate, Convoso CallCaltyst, etc.);
3. Identify and prioritize high value messaging while removing campaigns that tend to draw higher opt out rates from your campaign strategy;
4. For larger organization, assigning a point person to oversee contact strategy and evaluate enterprise needs in light of these new rules is critical;
5. Leverage vendors that offer solutions to identify free form text responses (merely obeying a handful of keywords will not be sufficient);
6. Collapse contacts to fewer outbound channels to make it easier to track and honor revocations and critical re-consents; and
7. Build out robust opportunities for consumers to provide new consents as you interact and provides services to existing customers.