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Sean D. Reyes
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Attorney General Reyes Statement on U.S. Supreme Court Robocalls Ruling

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 6, 2020

ATTORNEY GENERAL REYES STATEMENT ON U.S. SUPREME COURT
ROBOCALLS RULING

SALT LAKE CITY — Today, the United States Supreme Court upheld the federal robocall ban with its decision in Barr v. AAPC. Earlier this year, Attorney General Sean D. Reyes signed onto an amicus brief in support of the ban as part of a 33-state coalition of attorneys general.
 
Attorney General Reyes’ statement is below:
 

“I’m glad the U.S. Supreme Court has reaffirmed the government’s authority to ban these robocalls, but this is just one piece of the bigger picture,” said Utah Attorney General Sean D. Reyes. “Our real concern will be to empower my state and federal partners to even more aggressively protect Utahns and Americans from crimes like financial fraud and identity theft.” 

“There are robocalls that are acceptable for things like school reminders and acceptable business contacts,” Reyes continued.  “We need to continue to fight the millions of unchecked robocalls annually that unscrupulous businesses and predators use to exploit unsuspecting consumers across America. Many of these calls originate overseas.”

Attorney General Reyes has worked diligently to ensure telephone carriers can aggressively block illegal robocalls before they reach consumers through ongoing collaborations with the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), the Telecom industry and a coalition of state attorneys general.  Reyes urged the passage of the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act, which enables the industry to develop call authentication protocols to combat caller- ID spoofing and implement other sweeping anti-robocall measures and demanded the FCC take expedient action in the Truth in Caller ID Act rulemaking process against illegal spoofing. Reyes was also instrumental in developing the Anti-Robocall Principles for telecoms to reduce the number of unwanted and illegal robocalls reaching the American people, which were adopted by 51 attorneys general and 12 major telecom providers in August 2019. 

Reyes added: “I have worked for years on this issue to ensure a balance of enforcement against bad actors on one hand and not getting in the way of legitimate business or public service contacts on the other.  Tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars are lost yearly to these types of scams and identity frauds. I am very pleased that the High Court today reaffirmed the government’s authority to ban illegal robocalls.”

“I am proud to work with a bipartisan group of state attorneys general to protect our citizens from illegal robocalls. I will continue to do everything in my power to fight this threat in Utah and America,” said Attorney General Reyes.

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