Definition
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (47 U.S.C. § 227) restricts calls and text messages made with an automatic telephone dialing system or using an artificial or prerecorded voice to cell phones without the called party's prior express consent. It also governs the National Do Not Call Registry and requires honoring revocation of consent by any reasonable means.
For debt collectors, the TCPA is the primary source of class action exposure: statutory damages are $500 per call or text, trebled to $1,500 for willful violations, with no cap. Collectors must track consent per phone number, verify numbers have not been reassigned, and stop immediately on revocation.
Example
A lender has consent to call a borrower's cell number from the loan application. The borrower later replies "stop calling me" to a text. Any further autodialed call or text to that number after the revocation is a TCPA violation at $500 to $1,500 each.
How HL Hunt handles it
HL Hunt stores consent per phone number with its source and timestamp, checks the FCC Reassigned Numbers Database before use, detects revocation by keyword and natural language across channels, and blocks any prohibited call or text at the compliance engine before it is placed.