Any business that disperses interstate and international communications via radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable is subject to FCC regulation, and a recent FCC lead generation ruling has left many companies in the relevant industries feeling a bit lost. While these FCC lead generation changes were recently struck down by the Eleventh Circuit federal appellate court, an appeal has been filed. Depending on how this tumultuous time concludes, you may be left wondering how you can find your next leads in a constantly changing landscape.

If you have questions, Strolid has your answers. Truthfully, even if the new lead regulations end up being implemented, they wouldn’t be all bad. We’ll show you how.

Understanding the Proposed FCC Lead Generation Ruling

Recently, the FCC, or Federal Communications Commission, attempted to codify a new set of lead generation practices. These proposed FCC lead gen rules came with two critical requirements, both of which were set to come into effect on January 27, 2025. However, they were struck down by the Eleventh Circuit federal appellate court on January 24, 2025:

• Individualized Consent: Businesses would be required to obtain explicit, individualized consent from all consumers before any marketing communications can commence. This move toward one-to-one consent, planned to begin on January 27, 2025, ranks among the strictest FCC new lead regulations to date. If signing on for this consent would put the signer on a robocall or robotext list, there must be a conspicuous disclosure stating that the signer will receive automated communications.
• Topical Relevance: The consent obtained must be directly related to the primary content of the website where it was given. For instance, the consent provided on a travel deal comparison site cannot be used to justify calls about unrelated services like real estate.

According to the FCC, these rulings were recommended because a large percentage of robocalls or robotexts were due to lead-generation methods with weak claims of consent. The goal was to reduce customer dissatisfaction with automated communication methods while bringing marketing laws in check with the Trade Commission’s Telemarketing Sales Rule, which also required one-to-one consent documentation.

How the New FCC Rules Would Adapt the April 2025 Consent Regulations

The new FCC regulations for January 2025 were in addition to a January 2024 final ruling, which stated that a business must follow a group of rules surrounding consent. As a reminder, the following rules are planned to be put into effect on April 11, 2025:

• The Revocation of Consent: The first part of the rule means a business must make it clear and obvious where or how a customer may revoke consent for future communications.
• Honoring Do Not Call and Consent Revocation Requests: Businesses are required to, in no fewer than 10 business days of receiving a do-not-call or consent revocation request, stop marketing contact with the said consumer.
• Text Limitations: Text senders are limited to a one-time text message confirming a consumer’s request to avoid future messages, as well as a confirmation that the revocation only applies to robocalls or robotexts where consent is required.

Unlike the FCC lead generation rules planned for January 2025, this set of boundaries is currently being kept active at the time of this writing.

How Lead Regulation Changes Impact Businesses

Should the recent appeal of the Eleventh Circuit decision be successful, the FCC lead regulation would make lead generation somewhat more difficult for businesses of every size. These new lead-generation practices would cause consumers to be less willing or motivated to provide marketing consent for endless companies, resulting in fewer potential leads. To help you navigate the new FCC ruling in the case that the appeal process ends up bringing the rules into practice, here’s a snapshot of how the proposed lead regulation guidelines may affect your business:

1. Lead generation companies could no longer rely on purchasing bulk leads with generalized consent. Each lead would have provided explicit permission to be contacted by the specific business, meaning a more targeted approach to lead acquisition is needed.
2. Businesses would likely be forced to evolve their marketing strategies, shifting focus from third-party lead generators to capturing customer information directly through their own websites and social channels.
3. Individualized consent requirements would likely elevate lead acquisition and management costs as businesses must ensure each lead meets the new lead generation regulations.
4. Internal teams would have to update their systems and processes to meticulously document and manage individual consents. This process may involve investing in new technologies or modifying existing processes to ensure compliance. This includes Do Not Call policies and consent request forms, as well as where those options are visible on websites, emails, text messages, and other marketing tools.
5. Teams must also review previously obtained consent to ensure they follow current FCC regulations. If they do not follow the proposed new FCC lead generation ruling or the April 2025 FCC consent revoking law, they would contact said customers and attempt to obtain one-to-one consent or remove them from robocall or robotext lists.

Should either ruling enter law, noncompliance with these regulations could result in significant legal repercussions, including fines and increased exposure to class-action lawsuits. By proactively adapting to these regulatory changes, businesses can improve customer trust through more informed consent and avoid frustrating internal program adjustments made on the fly as enforcement for these rulings comes into effect.

Creating a Game Plan: How To Balance New Lead Regulations With Workflows

In the face of these potential lead regulations, having a straightforward plan can let you adjust to the changing regulatory atmosphere and uplift your customer’s trust in your company. If you’re not sure where or how to start, Strolid has a few strategic insights to share in the event that regulations become more stringent.

• Review and Update Consent Mechanisms: Assess consumer consent methods and adjust consent forms to ensure they align with the new one-to-one requirement. Clearly state the business or seller that will make contact and avoid generic or blanket consents covering multiple entities. Also, ensure your options to revoke consent are obvious to the customer.
• Organize Existing Consumer Consent Forms: Identify which customers’ consent was received through mass marketing means and which was received through one-on-one consent. For the former category, make contact with them and utilize compliant methods to regain consent in a legal fashion or remove them from your database.
• Enhance Transparency: Clearly inform consumers about who will contact them and why to eliminate any compliance violations and keep consent informed and specific.
• Invest in Compliance Infrastructure: Develop or upgrade consent systems. Track and manage individual consents, including timestamps, specific consent details, and collection methods.
• Update Marketing Strategies: Reduce reliance on third-party lead generation and invest in building first-party relationships. Target customers more precisely with direct data and make clarity a selling point to show customers that their privacy is respected.
• Optimize Lead Generation Channels: Shift focus to channels that directly engage customers, such as social media campaigns, search engine marketing, and content marketing like blogs or webinars. Work only with third-party lead generators that adhere to the new consent standards.
• Train Staff Accordingly: Integrate consent management with existing CRM systems while educating employees to understand the importance of explicit consent. Provide ongoing updates to staff about regulatory changes and compliance practices.
• Protect Against Audits: Be sure to maintain robust audit trails to demonstrate compliance if challenged. This means regularly reviewing compliance processes to identify gaps, implementing corrections proactively, encouraging feedback to gauge customer sentiment, and refining the consent processes. Engage attorneys or consultants to ensure all practices align with the latest regulations.

The Benefits of Lead Regulation

The proposed FCC lead generation law would be stricter and require more focused consent forms, it’s true, but this potential requirement for one-to-one consent would also be a prime opportunity to bolster consumer trust in lead generation. By showing potential customers that you care about their privacy through following the above strategies, you can build stronger relationships and higher retention rates.

Keeping an eye on FCC lead regulation laws also reduces your company’s legal risks and potential fines, which can reach well into tens of thousands of dollars and cost you years of hard-earned reputation.

Finally, developing practices around upcoming lead regulation protocols can also improve your brand’s targeting efficiency by focusing on genuinely interested leads rather than wasting time on lukewarm contacts. It may seem like you’re losing ground by trading in third-party information for first-party data, but according to our recent surveys – you can explore them all on our “When Is a Lead a Lead?” page – a maximum of 10% of conversions come from third-party leads.

In short, even though this FCC lead generation ruling may not come into effect, the benefits of following it in the case that it does become enforced could make up for the downsides.

How Does Strolid Help With FCC Lead Generation Regulations?

As your business adapts to the growing list of new FCC regulations regarding consent and lead generation, you can always keep one of the most storied and reliable third-party BDC operations in mind. At Strolid, we enhance your ability to pick up leads – in up-to-date compliance with the regulations set up by the FCC – in the following ways.

• Highly Trained Staff: Our staff are all familiar with dealer CRMs and can grant insights on where to place consent forms, what methods of lead generation seem to work best for your website, and how to follow up on a lead properly in these changing times.
• Lower Chance to Miss Leads: The new regulations would hypothetically reduce the number of overall leads you get, meaning the high-quality opportunities that walk through your front door, call your phone, use your website’s chat functionality, or text your service bay would be must-take lead opportunities. Strolid assists in getting those leads for you through enhanced coverage and teams specialized in specific areas of communication – all while following any potential FCC new rule on selling leads by targeting the demographics most likely to give informed consent.
• Reduced Strain on Your Business: In the case they are cemented, following the updated FCC lead generation ruling addendums would be stressful and irritating. However, a third-party BDC you can trust takes the effort of following leads away. With our services, you can focus on elevating your business and getting cars out the door while we focus on staying compliant and consistent with any and all lead-generation practices.
• Database Implementation: If you find your consent database outdated or your policies for Do Not Call noncompliant, we at Strolid can get you back on the right track. We’ll work with your business and backend to organize, update, and modernize your systems to comply with how you are expected to get and keep FCC leads.
• A Human Touch With AI Improvements: Many automotive BDCs attempt to follow the FCC lead generation ruling by using AI to generate consent forms or even communicate with customers. We use AI to automate headaches that your team members might face with training or backend headaches while keeping lead generation human.

Partner With Strolid To Build Consumer Trust in Lead Generation

The FCC lead generation ruling is a topic sparking heated discussion in the automotive industry as in-house and third-party BDCs work to understand the new language, follow the legal processes, obtain customer consent, and develop new backlogs to house the newly required information from the April 11, 2025 ruling implementation. If you’re tired of how much you need to look after, then it’s time to take action and work with a company that prioritizes lead generation.

By taking a proactive approach, businesses can turn regulatory challenges into opportunities for more ethical, transparent, and effective lead generation. Reach out to the Strolid team today to protect your business from compliance violations, build greater consumer trust, and learn more about how BDC agents handle automotive leads. We’ll gladly walk you through our comprehensive programs, packages, and team sizes to get you the third-party BDC that functions expertly with your dealership.