The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in Duguid v. Facebook, a case that will hopefully settle at last how an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) is defined under the TCPA. The decision comes within days of a Court decision that upheld the TCPA’s sweeping ban on autodialed calls to cellphones while holding that calls made to collect [...]
In 2015, Congress exempted calls made to collect debts owed to or guaranteed by the United States from the TCPA’s autodialer restrictions. Today, in Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants, the Supreme Court of the United States held that the exemption unconstitutionally favors debt collection speech over political and other speech. After determining that the exemption is unconstitutional, the court [...]
The Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) has issued a Declaratory Ruling reaffirming that click-to-text systems requiring human intervention for each individual text message are not automatic telephone dialing systems (“ATDS”). The petitioner, P2P Alliance, argued that its peer-to-peer (“P2P”) texting platform requires a human to “to actively and affirmatively manually dial each recipient’s number and transmit each message one at a [...]
The state attorneys general (“AGs”) have signaled that they are ramping up their efforts to combat illegal telephone calls. Fifty-two AGs, including American Samoa and Puerto Rico, recently issued a letter (“Letter”) to the Industry Traceback Group (“ITG”), stating that the AGs want to strengthen their relationship with ITG to more aggressively combat robocalls. The ITG is a collaborative effort [...]
In the 2017 case ACA v. FCC, the D.C. Circuit Court confirmed prior Federal Communications Commission (FCC) guidance that Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) consent to be called can be revoked by “any reasonable means.” Since that ruling, trial courts have provided guidance on what constitutes “reasonable.” Last month, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California weighed [...]
Thanks to all who joined M&S Partner Michele Shuster and Senior Attorney Josh Stevens last Thursday for our webinar: STIR/SHAKEN – What it Means for You. Below are additional questions and answers that we did not have time for in the presentation. Were you unable to attend? View this 30-minute webinar in its entirety here. STIR/SHAKEN call authentication stands to [...]
One of the most hotly contested issues in TCPA litigation is whether a communication qualifies as an advertisement. For faxes, the determination impacts whether the TCPA applies at all. For calls made and texts sent to cell phones using an autodialer, the determination dictates the necessary level of consent. Case law on the issue is inconsistent at best. Recent decisions [...]
The Eleventh Circuit has joined the Second Circuit in finding that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) does not authorize unilateral revocation of consent to receive automated calls when such consent is given in a bargained-for contractual provision. In a favorable opinion for Dish Network, the court held that Dish had permission to continue placing robocalls to a subscriber, even [...]
In an Order issued Friday, the Federal Communications Commission implemented enhanced liability provisions for Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) violations Congress passed as part of the TRACED Act. Specifically, under the new provisions: The Commission will not be required to issue an administrative citation prior to seeking penalties against non-compliant callers. Previously, the Commission had to first issue an administrative [...]
After recent opinions from the Seventh Circuit (Gadelhak) and Eleventh Circuit (Glasser), a narrow interpretation of automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) seemed to be gaining traction. Both held that a system is not an ATDS unless it can: (a) store telephone numbers using a random or sequential number generator; or (b) produce telephone numbers using a random or sequential number [...]
