Tcpa and the Fair Credit Reporting Act

The telephone consumer protection act (TCPA) and the fair credit reporting acts are rules that need to be implemented for the protection of the consumer. There are many different acts that protect the consumer. Both of these acts protect the consumer to vital areas that are of importance. The telephone consumer protection act ensures that consumers are not hassled by telemarketers and have the ability to opt-out. The fair credit reporting act promotes the accuracy and privacy of information in consumer credit reports. It also controls the use of credit reports and requires consumer reporting agencies to maintain correct and complete files.

The telephone consumer protection act which was enacted into law in 1991. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) put rules in place to regulate and implement the TCPA which started on December 20, 1992. A lot of court challenges to the parts of the TCPA have been taken to the courts but they were denied once it reached the court system.

The advances in information technology that resulted in new ethical issues necessitating the creation of each act happened in 2003; the FCC amended the rules under the TCPA to induce the national Do-Not-Call list. In 2005, Congress amended the TCPA to have a new exemption to allow some extra unsolicited fax transmissions that before were not allowed under ant of the statutes. Overall, people who have been affected by telemarketing calls, unsolicited faxes, prerecorded calls, or autodialed calls to cell phones, can file a law suit against the person or company making those calls if they are violating the TCPA. The statute allows monetary compensation which can be from $500 to $1500 for each of the call violations made and the proceeds would then go to the consumer.

The fair credit reporting act was implemented back in 1970 to promote accuracy, fairness, and the privacy of personal information put together by Credit Reporting Agencies.

The three credit reporting agencies are Equifax, Experian and Trans Union. The reporting agencies needed laws to protect the consumer's credit reporting and the investigative consumer reporting and behavior activity through credit. Multiple amendments to the (FCRA) were enacted back in 1996 fro comprehensive reasons. It had a number of different improvements to it which included provisions to sharing information such as pre-screening.

The advances in information technology that resulted in new ethical issues necessitating the creation were the opt-out option that was put in place back in 2003. This enabled those who did not want any other business nor institution to look into personal credit data without the consent of the consumer. The Act preempts some state privacy protections, but includes a number of improvements to credit reporting law, including free credit reports annually.