
The Federal Communications Commission slapped ride-sharing company Lyft with a citation for invasive marketing practices.
The Federal Communications Commission has issued a citation to ride-hailing company Lyft for harassing customers with robotic calls and text messages. According to a report from CNET, regulators claim that the company’s terms of service allowed customers to opt out of such alerts, but provided them with no such option to do so.
The San Francisco-based company connects drivers with passengers looking for a ride with a smartphone app, but blocked service to users that attempted to opt out of the automatic messages. FCC regulators claim that this is in clear violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
In Lyft’s service terms, the company states that a user can decline to receive robocalls using options provided in the app. After an FCC probe, regulators discovered that there was no such option. Users that accessed the option through Lyft’s website were blocked from using the service further.
Travis LeBlanc, the chief of the FCC’s enforcement bureau, urged companies that restrict access to its services to users that don’t comply with their marketing practices to make swift changes.
A spokeswoman from Lyft says that the company is currently reviewing the citation, and that they look forward to resolving the issue in conjunction with the FCC.
The FCC issued a similar citation to the F.N.B. Corporation for its invasive marketing practices. They alleged that the Pittsburgh bank requires online customers to agree to terms that allow them to send automated text messages related to the service.
The FCC continues to crack down on invasive marketing practices, sending a strong warning to other companies involved in robotic messaging.
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