The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) — the regulatory body that oversees communications across a wide variety of media including radio, telephone and the internet — announced that new rules related to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) will go into effect in April 2025.
The new guidelines are designed to make it easier for consumers to revoke consent for unwanted robocalls and texts. The rules also impose stricter compliance guidelines on the organizations responsible for the communications, saying that companies must respond to opt-out requests in a “timely manner.”
The effective date for the new rule is April 11, 2025, giving the mortgage and real estate industries roughly six months to become compliant.
A consent order that was initially released this past February and published in the Federal Register in March aimed to “strengthen consumers’ ability to revoke consent to receive both robocalls and robotexts,” according to an announcement published by the FCC.
“In addition, the Commission sought comment on whether the TCPA applies to robocalls and robotexts from wireless providers to their own subscribers and whether to require an automated opt-out mechanism on every call that contains an artificial or prerecorded voice.”
The new guidelines will be of interest to any mortgage or real estate company that uses these communications to solicit business. With the mortgage industry coming out against the practice of trigger leads — and trade groups like the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) excoriating the practice as one that reduces consumer trust while actively harassing, deceiving and misleading consumers — the FCC is following suit with this broad-based rule.
It also follows on actions taken by the FCC in December 2023, where the regulator moved to adopt rules that would close the “lead generator loophole” that had been used in the mortgage business. “The new rules allow blocking of ‘red flagged’ robo-texting numbers, codifies do-not-call rules for texting, and encourages an opt-in approach for delivering email-to-text messages,” the FCC said at the time.
The Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act of 2024, a U.S. Senate bill introduced in December to target mortgage trigger leads, has been incorporated into the fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Congress must pass the NDAA each year, since it refers to laws that specify the annual budget for the U.S. Department of Defense.
Bob Broeksmit, president and CEO of the MBA, said his group is pleased with the development. The trade group is “working with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle […] to make sure this provision is included in the final version of the NDAA,” he said. “Congress must help homebuyers before it adjourns later this year.”
There are three core provisions to the new rules. First, consumers can revoke their consent to any such communications in “any reasonable way,” but in response to the broadness of the word “reasonable,” the FCC published guidelines for its thinking.
“Specifically, we adopt a new rule that makes clear that any revocation request made using an automated, interactive voice or key press activated opt-out mechanism on a robocall; via a response of ‘stop’ or a similar, standard response message sent in reply to an incoming text message; or submitted at a website or telephone number provided by the caller to process opt-out requests constitute examples of a reasonable means to revoke consent,” the FCC explained.
“If a called party uses any such method designated by the caller to revoke consent, we consider that consent to be definitively revoked by a reasonable means, and future robocalls and robotexts from that caller must be stopped.”
The second provision relates to the timely processing of opt-out requests.
“Specifically, we amend our rules to require that callers honor company-specific do-not-call and revocation-of-consent requests within a reasonable time from the date that the request is made, not to exceed 10 business days after receipt of the request,” the FCC’s guidance states.
Third, senders may follow up with a message that confirms the opt-out request was received.
“[A] one-time text message confirming a consumer’s request that no further text messages be sent does not violate the TCPA or the Commission’s rules as long as the confirmation text merely confirms the called party’s opt-out request and does not include any marketing or promotional information, and the text is the only additional message sent to the called party after receipt of the opt-out request,” the guidance explained.
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