The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has taken another step forward to ensure access to vital communications technology and services for those with hearing impairments or hearing loss.

In a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), the FCC has proposed that 100% of all wireless handsets, including mobile phones and smartphones, be fully hearing-aid compatible (HAC) by mid-2027. Under the NPRM, handset manufacturers would have a 24-month transition period to achieve this goal. Nationwide service providers would have 30 months to reach 100% HAC, while non-nationwide service providers would have 42 months.

To help facilitate efforts to achieve this goal, the Commission is also seeking comments on broadening the scope of HAC-enabling technologies to include the use of Bluetooth connectivity options.

The FCC says that its proposed rulemaking is based on recommendations from its Hearing Aid Compatibility Task Force, which consists of regulators, accessibility advocates, device manufacturers, and wireless service providers.

In another example of its stepped-up enforcement efforts, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has cited a New York City-based technology retailer for marketing unapproved radio frequency (RF) devices.

According to a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture issued by the Commission, Sound Around, an online seller of audio and video electronics and accessories, marketed 33 unauthorized, non-compliant radio frequency devices through its website. The company also reportedly failed to comply with repeated requests from the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau to cease its marketing of the non-compliant devices, dating as far back as 2011, and provided incomplete responses to multiple inquiries from the Bureau, thereby obstructing its investigation into the violations.

Accordingly, the FCC has proposed a financial penalty of $1,202,454 against Sound Around, an amount which the FCC says reflects the company’s willful and ongoing disregard of FCC rules.

The Commission of the European Union (EU) has recently adopted three separate legislative proposals in an effort to streamline the assessment of chemicals to be marketed or sold in the EU.

According to a press release, the Commission’s “one substance, one assessment” package includes the following legislative proposals:

• A proposal for a Regulation establishing a common data platform on chemicals;
• A proposal for a Regulation on the reattribution of scientific and technical tasks and improving cooperation among Union agencies in the area of chemicals; and
• A proposal for a Directive on the reattribution of scientific and technical tasks to the European Chemical Agency (ECHA).

The Commission believes that adopting this “one substance, one assessment” approach will streamline the assessment of chemicals across the EU, strengthen the knowledge base of chemicals, and ensure early detection and action on emerging chemical risks.

The Commission’s proposals will now undergo the standard EU legislative procedure in which both the EU Parliament and Council discuss the proposals and jointly agree on a common text before final adoption.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has released its annual report to Congress detailing consumer complaints and enforcement action in connection with illegal robocalls.

The report offers insight into trends related to informal consumer complaints regarding robocalls that were received by the Commission over five full calendar years, from 2018-2022, as well as complaint data and information about enforcement actions through November 2023.

Over the nearly six-year period covered in this report, the FCC received a total of 1,341,635 informal consumer complaints under four different provisions of the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act (TRACED Act). The largest number of complaints filed (312,225, or 42%) were for violations of the FCC’s restrictions on sales calls made to residential telephone numbers (section 227(c)), while an additional 289,061 (21.5%) were filed for providing misleading or inaccurate caller identification information (section 227(e)).

The report also indicates that the FCC’s stepped-up enforcement efforts over the past several years are having a positive impact in reducing the number of informal consumer complaints. After a record 333,146 informal complaints filed in 2018, annual informal complaint numbers have generally seen marked declines, with just 169,465 informal complaints filed in 2022, and only 125,586 complaints filed in 2023 through the end of November.

As evidence of those stepped-up enforcement efforts, the FCC’s report provides details on three separate Notices of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture issued in 2022, with total proposed fines of over $461 million. Two of those cases resulted in Forfeiture Orders issued by the Commission in 2023, amounting to more than $416 million in penalties.