Comedian John Oliver's Robocalls to FCC Appear Legal, Telecom Lawyers Say
Comedian John Oliver's robocalls to FCC members' offices likely are legal, telecom lawyers said. The "pre-recorded message satisfies the first element" of a Telephone Consumer Protection Act standard requiring prior consent, blogged Kelley Drye's Steve Augustino and Jennifer Rodden Wainwright.…
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But TCPA restrictions don't apply to the robocalls because HBO's Last Week Tonight host is calling landline phones (autodialed calls to wireless phones are restricted), and isn't introducing an advertisement or engaged in telemarketing, the attorneys suggested Monday in a post their law firm also emailed Tuesday. "Consent is not required for the calls that Oliver is making, and revocation of consent similarly is not relevant" here, they added. "Oliver rightly observed during his segment that the National Do Not Call Registry only applies to telemarketing calls, so even if the FCC commissioners registered their office phone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry, Oliver’s calls to them would not be unlawful." Some commissioners also have indicated the calls are legal (see 1903150061). The FCC declined to comment Tuesday on the calls' lawfulness, and HBO didn't comment. At least some of Oliver's calls continue to commissioners' offices every 90 minutes as the TV host said would occur.