• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, June 16, 2015

Four Democratic lawmakers are urging PayPal to back away from its plan to require users to consent to receiving autodialed text messages and robocalls.

“Consumers should not have to agree to submit themselves to intrusive robocalls in order to use a company's service,” Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said on Tuesday in a letter to PayPal.

The lawmakers are responding to PayPal's new terms of service, slated to take effect on July 1. Those terms require consumers to consent to receive autodialed text messages and prerecorded calls from phone numbers they have provided as well as phone numbers that PayPal has “otherwise obtained.”

The terms say that PayPal might send texts for numerous reasons, including collecting debts, resolving disputes, and conducting polls.

A PayPal spokesperson says the company clarified its policies in a June 5 blog post, which says that users can opt out of receiving robocalls and texts by logging into their accounts and contacting customer service.

Several days after PayPal posted that clarification, the Federal Communications Commission warned the company that its terms of service may violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which restricts companies' ability to send SMS messages to consumers without their explicit consent.

“If PayPal plans to make autodialed, prerecorded, or artificial voice calls or text messages to its customers, please be aware that federal law places strict limits on such communications,” Travis LeBlanc, chief of the FCC's Enforcement Bureau, wrote to PayPal on Thursday.

LeBlanc told PayPal that the agency's rules implementing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act prohibit companies from requiring that consumers consent to receiving robocalls and texts as a condition of service. The rules also obligate companies to tell consumers they don't have to consent to receiving robocalls and texts.

The FCC also takes issue with PayPal's attempt to reserve the right to robocall and text people at phone numbers other than the ones they've provided. “Consumers have the right to choose on which line(s) they wish to receive telemarketing or advertising calls, if they elect to receive such calls at all,” the letter states.

Violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act can result in $16,000 fines per call or text message, LeBlanc said.