Bipartisan Senate bill would penalize illegal robocalls

November 17, 2018

Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) introduced legislation Friday that would levy a hefty fine on illegal robocalls and attempt to prevent them from reaching consumers in the first place.

Thune, chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and Markey, a member of the committee, introduced the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act Friday, which would allow the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to levy civil penalties of up to $10,000 per call.

“The TRACED Act targets robocall scams and other intentional violations of telemarketing laws so that when authorities do catch violators, they can be held accountable,” Thune said in a press release. “Existing civil penalty rules were designed to impose penalties on lawful telemarketers who make mistakes. This enforcement regime is totally inadequate for scam artists and we need do more to separate enforcement of carelessness and other mistakes from more sinister actors…”