News & Impact Stories

Consumers Denied Relief from Unwanted Telemarketing Calls After Federal Court Scraps Consent Rule 

January 27, 2025 — Press Release

11th Circuit Order Vacates One-to-One Consent Rule Designed to Restore Trust in the U.S. Telephone System

WASHINGTON – Advocates with the National Consumer Law Center, Public Knowledge, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) raise alarms over a last-minute decision by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to vacate a regulation that would have eliminated a large number of the unwanted telemarketing calls that plague consumers and small business owners.

The court’s order in Insurance Marketing Coalition v. FCC vacated the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) one-to-one consent regulation late last Friday, January 24, just one business day before the regulation’s effective date. An hour before the court order was issued, the FCC, under new leadership with the change in administration, had itself issued an order delaying the rule.

“The regulation was widely supported as a means to restore trust in the U.S. telephone system, by a bipartisan coalition of state Attorneys General, as well as the telephone industry,” said Margot Saunders, senior attorney with the National Consumer Law Center. “It was widely recognized that by cutting the onslaught of telemarketing calls (over 1.4 billion every month), telephone service providers would be better able to identify and block the dangerous scam calls plaguing consumers.” 

The regulation, known as the one-to-one consent rule, was issued in December 2023. It would have prohibited the practice by telemarketers and lead generators of asking consumers to agree to receive calls about a product from “our partners,” and revealing only in a hyperlink that the so-called “partners” numbered in the hundreds or even thousands.  Lead generators then sell these “consents” to other companies, who resell them to yet others, resulting in a flood of unwanted calls, often regarding products that have nothing to do with the product the consumer was seeking.  The rule would have required consent to be collected for calls from one seller at a time–in other words, lead generators and telemarketers would have to get specific consent for each company the consumer wanted to hear from.  

The FCC’s regulation is consistent with the requirements for telemarketing calls imposed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in its Telemarketing Sales Rule and by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in relation to calls to consumers to sell covered health insurance.

“The Eleventh Circuit’s decision will hurt consumers, small businesses and the American phone system,” said Chris Frascella, counsel at EPIC. “This is particularly disheartening because the rule was a very simple but impactful protection: companies could only sell your consent to receive robocalls if you provided an individual record of consent (e.g. a checkbox) for each company you consented to receiving robocalls from.”

The one-to-one consent regulation was also strongly supported by hundreds of small business owners, who, in response to the FCC’s request, filed almost 400 comments with the FCC. Small business owners noted that telemarketing calls overwhelm their business lines, costing them time and money. 

As one small business owner in real estate noted: “My phone is my lifeline. All of my business is either generated or facilitated on my phone. In the current climate, I get more spam calls in a day than I get business calls. The spammers have begun spoofing [caller ID] numbers to use local numbers. As a real estate professional, I have to answer these calls for fear of it being a lead or customer call.”

Related Resources

Support NCLC

Please support NCLC's work to advance consumer rights and economic justice with a tax-deductible contribution today!

Donate