With all the talk of the Supreme Court’s decision in AAPC, it’s upcoming decision in Facebook, and all the other currently hot items-of-the-year in TCPA litigation (Creasy, etc.), it can be easy to skip past decisions that...more
The Fifth Circuit’s decision in Fontana v. Bay Area Credit Services, No. 20-30471 (5th Cir. 2021) sets another important limitation on the scope of covered “communications” under the FDCPA. In this case, Bay Area Credit...more
Little details matter, particularly in TCPA class actions. The court’s decision in Perrong v. Victory Phones LLC, No. 20-5317, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26159 (E.D. Pa. Feb. 11, 2021) is a good reminder not to simply gloss over...more
Just because the number of TCPA and FDCPA claims is falling (for now) is not necessarily a guarantee that the quality of remaining cases is any better, as evidenced by the Western District of Wisconsin’s recent decision in...more
Ringless Voicemail (“RVM”) technology provides companies the ability to reach a massive amount of people with low cost by avoiding typical telephony charges. RVM works by sending a voicemail message via server-to-server...more
2/25/2021
/ Auto-Dialed Calls ,
Cell Phones ,
Class Action ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Corporate Fines ,
Do Not Call List ,
FCC ,
Marketing ,
Prior Express Consent ,
Robocalling ,
TCPA ,
Voicemail
Failing to pay your credit card bills doesn’t pay. And it shouldn’t. But that doesn’t stop some debtors from at least trying to make a personal pay day out of it under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”), as evidenced by...more
In July of 2020, the Supreme Court issued its highly anticipated decision in Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants, Inc., 140 S. Ct. 2335 (2020), known ever since as the AAPC decision. The Supreme Court set...more
2/3/2021
/ Auto-Dialed Calls ,
Barr v American Association of Political Consultants Inc ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Debt Collection ,
Discrimination ,
FDCPA ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Government Debt-Exception ,
SCOTUS ,
Severability Doctrine ,
Strict Scrutiny Standard ,
TCPA
The Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) seeks comment on the Petition for Expedited Declaratory Ruling Regarding the Application of 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1) of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“Petition”) filed by...more
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) provides a (deceptively?) simple definition of an Automatic Telephone Dialing System (ATDS):
The term “automatic telephone dialing system” means equipment which has the capacit...more
Text messages are becoming an ever-increasing way for companies to communicate with their customers. However, if text message campaigns are not crafted properly, companies can run afoul of the Telephone Consumer Protection...more
Serial-litigant Mark Leyse was handed a well-deserved defeat after a decade long crusade against Bank of America (“BOA”) for alleged violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”). Leyse v. Bank of Am., N.A.,...more
Text messages are becoming an ever-increasing way for companies to communicate with their customers. However, if text message campaigns are not crafted properly, companies can run afoul of the Telephone Consumer Protection...more
Since the enactment of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), the FCC has long held that persons who knowingly and voluntarily release their telephone numbers have provided prior express consent to be called. But...more
As the walls start to close in for the plaintiffs’ bar on the definition of an “automatic telephone dialing system” (“ATDS”) under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), plaintiffs’ attorneys continue to rely on...more
The dust was finally settling. District and Circuit courts around the country were rejecting the Ninth Circuit’s overly broad interpretation of the definition of an automatic telephone dialing system (“ATDS”) under the...more
Following the Eleventh Circuit’s opinion a few weeks ago, the Seventh Circuit just held that dialing equipment must be capable of storing or producing telephone numbers using a random or sequential number generator in order...more
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act case law interpreting the definition of an “automatic telephone dialing system” (“ATDS”) is changing under plaintiffs’ feet and coalescing against the definition set forth in Marks v....more
On January 28, 2020, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals dealt a body-blow to serial TCPA scammers and everyone else who has disingenuously argued over the past decade that any type of “automated” dialing equipment is...more
In doing so, the First Circuit both expanded the scope of TCPA liability while simultaneously making compliance virtually impossible for callers.
Cellular services and VOIP -
The ATDS prohibition of the TCPA regulates...more
The potential payday of a TCPA class action is huge. Sometimes, it makes otherwise good attorneys convince themselves of really bad ideas when chasing those dollar signs. Derrick v. Kroger Co., No. 3:19-cv-00106, 2019 U.S....more
Ringless Voicemail (“RVM”), also known as direct-to-voicemail, is a growing telecommunications technology that allows telemarketers and businesses to “drop” voicemails directly into a consumer’s telephone voicemail. To do so,...more
Yesterday morning, the Supreme Court issued its decision in PDR Network, LLC, et al. v. Carlton & Harris Chiropractic, Inc. At issue was whether a TCPA-defendant in a civil case may contest the Federal Communications...more
In Snow v. GE, No. 5:18-CV-511-FL, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 99760 (E.D.N.C. June 14, 2019), a North Carolina federal court dismissed a TCPA claim on the grounds that dialing equipment must possess a random or sequential number...more
Safety hazards presented by the air transportation of lithium ion batteries are once again the subject of regulatory action in the United States. The U.S. DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)...more
4/25/2019
/ Air Cargo ,
Air Carriers ,
Department of Transportation (DOT) ,
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ,
Hazardous Substances ,
ICAO ,
Incident Response Plans ,
Interim Final Rules (IFR) ,
Lithium Batteries ,
Manufacturers ,
PHMSA ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Supply Chain ,
Warning Labels
Since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) publication of the Final Rule regarding Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food on April 6, 2016, 21 CFR 1.900, et seq. (the STF Rule), there has been an increase...more
4/23/2019
/ Audits ,
Brokers ,
FMCSA ,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ,
Food Safety ,
FSMA ,
IFTA ,
Lithium Batteries ,
Motor Carriers ,
Regulatory Agencies ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Sanitary Food Transportation Act (SFTA) ,
Shipping ,
Trucking Industry