The Revocation of Consent Rule: What is it and When is it Effective?
The Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC ) rule under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) for revocation of consent of robocalls and text messages was originally set to go into effect on April 11, 2025. However, the FCC just released an order on April 7th that delays the effective date of a certain part of the revocation rule by a year, to April 11, 2026.
The FCC is delaying the effective date of section 64.1200(a)(10) “to the extent that it requires callers to apply a request to revoke consent made in response to one type of messages to all future robocalls and robotexts from that caller on unrelated matters”.
This extension was granted to give those affected by the rule additional time to update their communication systems to comply with the revocation request requirements efficiently and cost-effectively. The FCC found “good cause exists to justify a limited waiver of the effective date…” and that “public interest is served by a waiver” as many of the businesses affected by this rulemaking have expressed concerns that they will incur “significant hardship in the expenditure of resources to comply with the rule”. America’s Credit Unions repeatedly advocated for the FCC to modify the rule and delay its effective date, so we appreciate the FCC’s announcement to delay the effective date of this consequential provision of the rule. Below you will find a couple America’s Credit Unions news stories from the past that address this topic:
Revocation of consent rule address credit union concerns
Nussle, Hunt discuss TCPA consent revocation rules with FCC’s Starks
The goal of the FCC’s rule is to “strengthen consumers’ ability to revoke consent” by giving them more reign over their ability to withdraw consent from marketing communications. Instead of businesses requiring consumers to use a specific method to revoke consent, they must allow them to be able to withdraw consent using “any reasonable manner that clearly expresses a desire to not receive further calls or text messages.”
The FCC provided certain keywords, including “stop,” “quit,” “revoke,” “opt out,” “cancel,” “unsubscribe,” and “end”. If a consumer uses any of these keywords, it is considered an explicit revocation request. If the consumer uses a method other than one specified within the order, it creates a rebuttable presumption that the consumer is revoking consent, unless the sender can prove otherwise. Businesses must also disclose to consumers if their technology does not support reply messages and must provide an alternative, reasonable means for revocation.
Additionally, the revocation of consent rule shortens the timeframe in which companies must process opt-out requests from 30 business days to 10 business days and broadens the scope of revocation. There are 3 important provisions within the rule that address the scope of the rule:
1. “When a consumer revokes consent with regard to telemarketing robocalls or robotexts, the caller can continue to reach the consumer pursuant to an exempted informational call, which does not require consent, unless and until the consumer separately expresses an intent to opt out of these exempted calls”;
2. “If the revocation request is made directly in response to an exempted informational call or text, however, this constitutes an opt-out request from the consumer and all further non-emergency robocalls and robotexts must stop”; and
3. “When consent is revoked in any reasonable manner, that revocation extends to both robocalls and robotexts regardless of the medium used to communicate the revocation of consent.”
What this means is, the new scope requires a revocation request received in response to an informational or exempted robocalls or texts to require communications to stop across all mediums and for all purposes.
Lastly, for text messages, the rule permits the sender to send a one-time text message confirming the scope of the consumer’s request for no additional calls/texts. This text must be sent within 5 minutes of the revocation request and cannot include any marketing or promotional information.
You can read more about the rule and how to comply here.
If you have any questions concerning this new rule and/or order pertaining to it, please contact the America’s Credit Union’s Compliance team at compliance@americascreditunions.org.
