FCC Explains TRS Marketing, Lobbying Restrictions
The FCC clarified “overly broad” rules meant to protect Telecommunications Relay Service users from unwanted marketing and lobbying. In a declaratory ruling issued late Wednesday, the FCC gave examples of settings in which interstate relay service providers may use TRS databases to contact users. But the extra guidance fails to eliminate a double standard for relay and non-relay users, said an official at TRS provider GoAmerica.
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The 2007 FCC TRS Cost Recovery Declaratory Ruling barred TRS providers from using consumer or call databases to “attempt to influence… [consumer] use of relay service” or “for lobbying or any other purpose.” The new declaratory ruling addresses concerns that the vague language violates TRS providers’ First Amendment rights, the FCC said. The 2007 order “may have the unintended effect of preventing TRS providers from communicating important information, including critical public safety information, to TRS users relating to the handling of relay calls,” the agency said.
Providers may contact users if their aim is informational and “directly related to the handling of TRS calls,” the FCC said. The commission said it allows contact about service outages, providing technical support, responding to calls for emergency services and assisting in delivery of emergency services. Providers also may use customer data to comply with a federal law, FCC rule or order, court order or other legal authority, it said.
Providers may not contact users to “offer financial or other incentives to generate additional or longer calls” billable to the TRS Fund, the FCC said. Nor may they use customer data or TRS Fund subsidies “to engage in lobbying or advocacy activities directed at relay users,” it said. The agency cited evidence that “at least one service provider has bombarded deaf persons with material seeking to persuade them to support the provider’s position on matters pending before the FCC.” Such efforts are “inconsistent with the purpose of the TRS Fund,” it said.
The limits don’t violate First Amendment rights, the FCC said. The government can insist that federal subsidies be used for their authorized purpose, the agency said. And the government can restrict use of customer and call databases, since that material is developed and maintained by companies participating in the federal TRS program, it said.
The extra guidance failed to solve TRS providers’ problem with the rules, said Kelby Brick, GoAmerica regulatory and strategic policy vice president. “While we are in favor of protecting consumer information, the order seems to prevent legitimate outreach and information flow to relay customers, and treats them differently than non-relay customers,” he said. “This double standard is isolating, and we believe is a step backward from establishing deaf and hard of hearing consumers as equal to their hearing counterparts.”