The U.S. Chamber of Commerce urged the FCC...

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce urged the FCC to address various questions about Telephone Consumer Protection Act rules raised in a Jan. 31 petition by ACA International. “The Commission’s adoption of desperately needed updates, clarifications and revisions to its TCPA rules will allow covered communications to be governed by a clear, fair and consistent regulatory framework that protects the interests Congress contemplated in enacting the TCPA without impeding legitimate business operations,” ACA said then (http://bit.ly/1i099j9). The Chamber said the FCC should confirm that not all predictive dialers are automatic telephone dialing systems, that “capacity” under the TCPA means present ability and that prior express consent to make a call “attaches to the person who incurs a debt, and not the specific telephone number the debtor provides at the time of consent.” TCPA lawsuits are a growing problem for its members, the Chamber said. “TCPA lawsuits against businesses are skyrocketing,” it said (http://bit.ly/1iEIN8j). “There were 222 TCPA lawsuits filed in February 2014 compared to 159 in February 2013, an increase of 40 percent. There were 1,862 TCPA lawsuits filed in 2013 compared to 1,101 in 2012 and 825 in 2011, an increase of 69 percent and 126 percent, respectively."