Glossary
Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)
The US law that restricts autodialed, prerecorded and artificial-voice calls and texts to phones without prior consent, including calls made with AI voices.
What does Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) mean in clinical research?
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 makes it unlawful to call a cell phone using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice without the prior express consent of the called party, unless the call is for emergency purposes. The statute lets people recover $500 in damages for each violation, and a court may triple that for willful or knowing violations.[1]
In February 2024 the FCC confirmed that the TCPA's restrictions on artificial or prerecorded voice cover current AI technologies that generate human voices, so AI voice calls need prior express consent unless an exemption applies.[2] FCC rules also let people revoke consent by any reasonable means, including replying stop, and require callers to honor revocation within a reasonable time not to exceed 10 business days.[3]
Practical note: for trial outreach, document how each phone number and consent were obtained, disclose AI assistance, and honor opt-outs across every channel. Review the approach with counsel. Engage tells patients AI assistance is used and lets them reach a person at any time, by live transfer to a coordinator or a human callback, whichever the site prefers; see also the post on TCPA and AI outreach.
Sources
- 1.47 U.S. Code 227 Restrictions on use of telephone equipment · Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, 1991
- 2.Implications of Artificial Intelligence Technologies on Protecting Consumers from Unwanted Robocalls and Robotexts, Declaratory Ruling (FCC 24-17) · Federal Communications Commission, 2024
- 3.Rules and Regulations Implementing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, Report and Order (FCC 24-24) · Federal Communications Commission, 2024