WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) — The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Aug. 1 that it is working on an initiative to help industry efforts to stop unwanted robocalls before they reach consumers.
According to the FTC, U.S. consumers reports tens of thousands of illegal robocalls every single day. Under the FTC’s new initiative, a phone number list will be created from consumer Do Not Call or robocall violation reports. This list will then be handed over to telecommunications carriers and other industry partners so that they can develop and implement call-blocking solutions.
“Sharing the critical information from consumers’ unwanted call complaints to enable industry innovators to stop illegal robocalls is exactly the type of public-private partnership the FTC champions,” said acting chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen.
The FTC noted that unwanted and illegal robocalls are the No. 1 complaint the agency receives from consumers. More than 1.9 million complaints were filed by consumers from January to June of this year. Consumer complaint data is crucial to help develop blacklists and cut down the amount of illegal calls made.