HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Most of us have experienced the dreaded robocalls and texts. But, John Cordona said night and day, his phone is ringing.
"They're constantly, constantly calling you. And they're different people, different phone numbers all the time," said John Cordona. "Brushing my teeth, I put my cell phone next to me. And I get two or three calls."
It's also a conversation happening in Tallahassee. Florida Representative Tom Fabricio sponsored House Bill 761: Telephone Solicitation.
"The problem arises with litigation that's been brought against some of these companies. Mass class action suits that are brought against them, which some of them aren't even meritorious. And they cost quite a bit of money to defend," he said.
In 2021, the Legislature passed a bill prohibiting communication without written consent.
"The 2021 bill had a lot of great consumer protections in it. This bill does not change that. And what it really does is help retailers know what they can and cannot do when communicating with current and future customers," Grace Lovett with the Florida Retail Federation said.
Consumer attorney Billy Howard disagrees.
"When you break that down, those future customers are people that you've never done business with. And you never got permission to text, too," Howard said.
Howard said that bill could potentially mean more robocalls are coming in.
"If they change the law, then all of these calls become legal. And there's no remedy for any citizens," he added.
The new bill outlines which robocall system would be deemed illegal. It's one Howard said is outdated and not used by many companies.
"We all want the ability to say yes or no to that. If you want telemarketing calls or texts, then you can tell the company that you're doing business with that you want them and if not, the answer's no, no, thank you. I don't want telemarketing without my consent, " Howard said.
He fears it'll scale back accomplishments from that bill in 2021.
"Complaints from Floridians since this law went into place have gone down 100,000. The robocalls that have been coming into Florida have gone down 140 million since this bill went into effect," he said.
The bill will go before the committee Monday morning.
