The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is continuing its efforts to clarify the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and its requirements.

To this end, the FCC is seeking comments by tomorrow, January 13, 2015, on eleven petitions seeking waiver of the FCC’s rule on opt-out notices on fax advertisements to recipients who have provided prior express invitation or permission.   Specifically, the petitioners seek retroactive waiver  of the opt-out notice requirement for fax ads which the petitioners assert were sent where prior express invitation or permission had been obtained from the recipient.  The petitioners argue that good cause exists because they are similarly situated to parties who were previously granted retroactive waivers from this requirement by the FCC because of uncertainty about whether the opt-out notice applied to “solicited” faxes.

Under the TCPA, unsolicited faxed advertisements are prohibited unless the sender has an established business relationship with the recipient; the recipient voluntarily communicated his or her fax number directly to the sender or a directory; and the faxed ad also contains an opt-out notice.

While comments are due tomorrow, reply comments are due January 20, 2015.