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Join us as we spotlight select chapters of Venable’s popular Advertising Law Tool Kit, which helps marketing teams navigate their organization’s legal risk. Click here to download the entire Tool Kit.

Telephone and text message marketing is subject to complex litigation risks and regulatory challenges, requiring careful compliance. Federal laws like the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and state-specific laws regulate marketing calls and texts, focusing on the use of autodialers, prerecorded messages, and consent requirements.Continue Reading Telemarketing and Texting

The Fifth Circuit on April 17 vacated a $57 million FCC forfeiture against AT&T, ruling the agency violated the company’s Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial under the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision in SEC v. Jarkesy. This decision reinforces that federal agencies imposing fines, forfeitures, and other monetary penalties must afford targets access to an Article III decision maker and a jury trial in order to perfect the penalty.Continue Reading Fifth Circuit Decision Vacating FCC Fine Against AT&T Makes It More Difficult for Federal Agencies to Impose Monetary Penalties for Violations of Agency Rules

On April 7, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted a limited waiver delaying by an additional year the effective date of certain parts of the new Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) rule. Specifically, the waiver delays the effective date for the requirement that a caller treat a single reasonable revocation as revocation from all future robocalls from that party on unrelated matters, and to accept that single revocation as applying to all its business units and entities, which the agency treats as the same “party.”

The FCC’s announcement indicated that it applies only to the scope of revocation issues. The bad news for businesses sending texts and making calls? Businesses must still prepare to comply with the rest of the robocall/robotext consent requirements by April 11, 2025. The good news is that companies now have an additional year to implement systems that communicate revocations across different business units within the same company.Continue Reading FCC Approves Narrow Delay of New TCPA Revocation Rule

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Federal Communications Commission v. Consumers’ Research (consolidated with SHLB Coalition v. Consumers’ Research), a case about the role of executive administrative agencies and congressional delegations of power to those agencies that could revitalize the long-dormant nondelegation doctrine.

This case has broad implications for administrative law generally, but for agencies that are empowered to assess fees or that delegate to private entities in particular. Notably, similar arguments about the doctrine were used to challenge some of the FTC’s more aggressive efforts under Lina Khan, former chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) . An affirmance would invite more aggressive challenges to all sorts of agency actions where arguably Congress’s delegation is unclear or goes too far.Continue Reading Supreme Court Hears Oral Argument in Nondelegation Case Implicating the Powers of Administrative Agencies

In January the Eleventh Circuit vacated the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) one-to-one consent rule, finding that the agency exceeded its statutory authority under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The latest development is that on February 19, 2025, the National Consumers League and some small business owners filed a motion to intervene in the case…

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under new chair Brendan Carr has issued an enforcement advisory addressing complaints that radio stations are coercing musical artists to perform for free at station events by threatening to reduce their airplay if they refuse.

The advisory warns that arrangements requiring performers to play at broadcast station events in exchange for airplay, particularly when coupled with threats of reduced airplay for non-compliance, could violate the FCC’s payola rules. These rules prohibit broadcasters from making programming decisions based on receiving anything of value without on-air disclosure of such consideration. A band’s coerced free performance could constitute such consideration and, if not disclosed during subsequent airplay, would violate payola policies.

The FCC characterized these practices as “covert manipulation of radio airplay,” noting that “[w]hen payola causes stations to broadcast programming based on their financial interests at the expense of community responsiveness, the practice is inconsistent with localism.” While commercial stations can negotiate increased airplay in exchange for event appearances, any agreement for free performances must be disclosed to listeners each time the artist’s songs are played.Continue Reading FCC Enforcement Advisory Issued Regarding Payola and the Sponsorship Identification Requirements

Robocalls may have always had some artificial flavor to them; however, the proliferation of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) continues to blur the line between human and machine interaction. On July 17, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a draft Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to address the ability of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) to restrict and regulate robocalls made using AI. The NPRM will be finalized and adopted at the agency’s August 7 meeting and may be modified prior to that based on feedback from interested parties.

The draft NPRM comes after the FCC invited and received comments on the subject in November of 2023. Specifically, the agency sought comments on “how AI technologies can be defined in the context of robocalls and robotexts” and what steps should be taken to ensure that the FCC can advance its statutory obligation under the TCPA. Subsequently, as we’ve reported, the FCC took action aimed at unlawful AI robocalls in a recent AI robocall enforcement in response to increased election year calling activities.Continue Reading Hello, This Is AI Calling. FCC Proposes New Rules for AI Robocalls

In a pair of Notices of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture this week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed a collective $8 million in fines against telecommunications company Lingo Telecom and political consultant Steven Kramer.

Robocalls, Generative AI, and Deepfakes

The FCC alleges Kramer violated the Truth in Caller ID Act. According to the FCC, two days before the New Hampshire 2024 presidential primary election, Kramer orchestrated a campaign of illegally spoofed and malicious robocalls that carried a deepfake audio recording of President Biden’s cloned voice telling prospective voters not to vote in the upcoming primary.

To transmit the calls, he worked with voice service provider Lingo Telecom, which incorrectly labeled the calls with the highest level of caller ID attestation, making it less likely that other telecommunications providers would detect the calls as potentially spoofed. For this reason, the FCC is also pursuing forfeiture against Lingo, alleging a violation of the STIR/SHAKEN rules for failing to use reasonable “Know Your Customer” protocols to verify caller ID information in connection with Kramer’s alleged illegal robocalls.Continue Reading FCC Proposes $8 Million in Fines Against Telecom Company and Political Consultant for Using Deepfake Generative Artificial Intelligence

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) agreed this week to cooperate and coordinate consumer protection efforts in enforcing the FCC’s reinstated “net neutrality” rules. The agencies stated in a Memorandum of Understanding that they will share legal, technical, and investigative expertise and experience in enforcing the rules.

The reinstated rules, adopted on April 25, formally reclassify internet service providers’ broadband services as “Telecommunications Services” under Title II of the Communications Act, rather than as a less-regulated Title I “Information service.” With this change in status, the FCC also reinstates specific proscriptive rules against blocking, throttling, or engaging in paid preference for certain network traffic, and re-adopts a “general conduct” standard barring unreasonable interference with consumers or providers that provide content and services.Continue Reading FCC and FTC to Cooperate in Enforcing Reinstated Net Neutrality Rules

On March 14, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted new rules that require cable television operators and satellite video providers to specify the aggregate monthly all-in price for video programming services on customer bills, any advertising, and all promotional materials in a “clear, easy-to-understand, and accurate single line-item.”

The price must include all charges for broadcast stations, sports programming, and any other programming. Other line items such as taxes, administrative fees, equipment fees, franchise fees, and fees for public, educational, and governmental (PEG) channels are not required to be part of the all-in price.Continue Reading FCC Adopts Video Service All-In Pricing Rules