The FCC has released a public notice announcing that certain hearing aid compatibility (HAC) rules took effect on Monday, May 21, 2018. The HAC rules taking effect this week were first adopted by the Commission on October 24, 2017. However, because the enforcement of these new rules results in modified information collection (required under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995) they were not to become effective until Federal Register published a notice announcing the new rules had been approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The Federal Register publishing date of May 21, 2018 is the first effective date of these new HAC rules. The new FCC rules, 47 CFR §§ 68.501-68.504 apply to wireline advanced communications services telephonic customer premises equipment, including wireline VoIP telephones, and deal with how consumers are informed that the devices they are buying employ HAC (i.e., HAC labeling).
