In one of the first court rulings to address the scope of the term “automatic telephone dialing system” (ATDS) after the release of the FCC’s July 2015 Declaratory Ruling (2015 Ruling or Ruling), U.S. Magistrate Judge Howard Lloyd of the Northern District of California focused heavily on whether the system used by the defendant to send the underlying texts required [...]
Last Friday evening, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released its anticipated Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) Declaratory Ruling. The Ruling, which became effective immediately upon release, was approved by a 3-2 vote during last month’s highly contentious public meeting. The document is full of rhetoric about protecting consumers from unwanted robocalls and texts. In actuality, however, it limits legitimate business’ [...]
The Declaratory Ruling (Ruling) approved by the Federal Communications Commission on June 18, 2015 related to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act has been released to the public and is effective immediately. The Ruling addresses, among other topics, the definition of “automatic telephone dialing system” and liability for calls made to reassigned numbers. The full text of the Ruling and the [...]
In a 3-2 vote today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved a declaratory ruling (Ruling) that, while intended to protect consumers from unwanted robocalls and texts, will in actuality limit legitimate business’ ability to contact their customers and further expose them to abusive class action lawsuits. Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, who voted against the Ruling, even went so far as to [...]
Last month, Commissioner Wheeler of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a fact sheet and blog post that summarized proposed declaratory rulings related to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The FCC commissioners are set to vote on the proposal during their Open Commission Meeting, which starts tomorrow, June 18th, at 10:30 AM EDT. The meeting can be streamed live [...]
Yesterday afternoon, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a fact sheet that summarizes proposed TCPA rulings Chairman Wheeler has distributed to the other FCC commissioners. Although the fact sheet contains few substantive details— and the full text of the proposed rulings was not released— the rulings are intended to address two dozen pending TCPA petitions. Relevant topics to be addressed in [...]
It is no secret that TCPA litigation has exploded in recent years. Much of this litigation involves the alleged use of an “automatic telephone dialing system” (ATDS) to call cell phones without proper consent. The definition of ATDS, however, continues to be debated in courts across the country. Yesterday, in Modica v. Green Tree Servicing, LLC, the Northern District of [...]
Several recent court opinions highlight ongoing concerns associated with TCPA litigation. The following is a high level summary and analysis of some of these opinions. Booth v. Appstack, Inc. (W.D. Washington). The Court granted Plaintiff’s motion to certify a class action TCPA lawsuit stemming from prerecorded messages sent to cell phone numbers used by small businesses. Although the opinion primarily [...]
Given the overwhelming migration away from landline telephones, a business’ ability to call its customers’ cell phones, for both marketing and non-marketing purposes, has never been more critical. Doing so in compliance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) can, however, be tricky. Unless a business knows for certain that a customer has provided the appropriate level of consent to [...]
Over the past few years, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) restrictions on calls to cell phones have made headlines and been a top compliance priority for businesses that conduct outbound calling campaigns. This is not surprising given: (1) the recent changes to the TCPA’s rules; (2) the increasing volume of class action TCPA lawsuits; and (3) statutory penalties of [...]
