The U.S. Federal Communications Commission announced on Friday that the ride-sharing company Lyft has violated consumers' rights by sending unwanted calls and text messages from telemarketers.
The investigation showed that Lyft doesn't allow consumers to access the service if they don't agree to receive telemarketing calls and text messages.
"Consumers have the right to choose whether they want marketing calls and texts to their cell phones," Travis LeBlanc, chief of the FCC's enforcement bureau, said in a statement quoted by Bloomberg News.
Aside from Lyft, the federal agency is also investigating First National Bank for allegedly requiring its customers to accept telemarketing calls and text messages. Both companies were given 30 days to respond to the FCC citation. If they don't fix their user agreements, both could receive penalties, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
"This is the first we are seeing of the order and are in the process of reviewing it. We look forward to working with the FCC to resolve this issue," a Lyft spokesperson told VentureBeat.
F.N.B. denied the allegations and promised to investigate the issue.
"We generally allow all customers to opt out of marketing information," Jennifer Reel, a spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh-based bank, told Bloomberg. "We will immediately investigate the issue and are fully committed to ensuring that we continue to comply with consumer rights and regulations."
This is not the first time that the FCC has called out companies for telephone privacy violations. Last June, the FCC sent a letter to PayPal's general counsel to fix its User Agreement to clarify the language it uses to communicate to customers how the company is allowed to contact them. The user agreement seemed to require customers to accept surveys, offers and promotions.
