At the Federal Communication Commission’s (“FCC”) June 8 Open Meeting, the Commissioners voted to adopt a new Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“Notice”) designed to clarify and expand upon the ability of consumers to decide...more
On July 12, 2022, Representatives Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., and Katie Porter, D-Calif. introduced H.R. 8334 in the U.S. House of Representatives, which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce. The bill would...more
Reacting quickly to a joint request by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) (collectively, the Health Agencies) last Thursday, the FCC released a Public...more
5/5/2022
/ Auto-Dialed Calls ,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Comment Period ,
Consent ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
FCC ,
Medicaid ,
Public Comment ,
Public Notice ,
Robocalling ,
Sovereign Immunity ,
TCPA ,
Text Messages
The FCC’s TCPA dockets did not witness many developments from the beginning of 2022 until February. However, beginning in February and into March, Chairwoman Rosenworcel’s office and the Enforcement Bureau were busy...more
After adopting orders reflecting the majority of implementation deadlines set by the TRACED Act and the Supreme Court’s highly anticipated TCPA decision interpreting the statutory definition of automatic telephone dialing...more
The Southern District of California recently dismissed the TCPA case Hildre v. Heavy Hammer, Inc., No. 3:20-cv-00236, 2021 WL 734431 (S.D. Cal. Feb. 25, 2021), for the plaintiff’s failure to adequately allege that the...more
Some welcome the New Year with new goals and new plans while others – the FCC, in particular, welcomes the New Year by wrapping up TCPA rulemakings and issuing other rulings. As expected, a number of TRACED Act items were...more
The FCC recently reported a decrease of approximately 60% of consumer robocall complaints and a drop of approximately 30% in volume of “unwanted robocalls” that were placed in the first half of 2020 as compared to the first...more
The Eleventh Circuit recently affirmed the district court’s summary judgment ruling that a defendant’s calls did not violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) because consumers cannot unilaterally revoke consent...more
The United States District Court for the District of Connecticut recently granted a Defendant’s motion to dismiss Plaintiffs’ TCPA claims because Plaintiffs failed to adequately allege facts supporting an inference that...more
On March 30, 2020, the American Bankers Association (“ABA”) and several other associations of banks and credit unions (together, “petitioners”) effectively asked the FCC to exempt all COVID-related calls and texts to...more
4/10/2020
/ American Bankers Association ,
ATDS ,
Auto-Dialed Calls ,
Cell Phones ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Debt Collection ,
Declaratory Rulings ,
FCC ,
Federal Contractors ,
Prior Express Consent ,
Reassigned Phone Numbers ,
Revocation ,
Robocalling ,
TCPA ,
Telecommunications ,
Telemarketing ,
Text Messages ,
Waivers
The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts recently granted a TCPA defendant’s motion to dismiss, in part, because the plaintiff failed to allege plausible facts supporting an assertion that the defendant,...more
As predicted, amendments to the TCPA – in the form of the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act (the “TRACED Act”) – were signed into law by the President of the United States on...more
1/7/2020
/ Amended Legislation ,
Auto-Dialed Calls ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
FCC ,
Law Enforcement ,
New Legislation ,
Robocalling ,
Spoofing ,
TCPA ,
Telecommunications ,
Telemarketing
Senate Bill 151, now called “the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act” (the “TRACED Act”), has been reconciled with the House of Representatives’ bipartisan bill House Bill 3375 and...more
The FCC’s TCPA docket now has two pending petitions for declaratory ruling on the question as to whether outbound telemarketing calls made through soundboard technology are prohibited communications if made without prior...more
In many TCPA cases, the sufficiency of a plaintiff’s allegations, particularly those concerning the defendant’s alleged use of an automatic telephone dialing system (“ATDS”), are tested at the pleadings stage through a motion...more
While the FCC has a record open to adopt guidance and a new definition for what it considers as an “automatic telephone dialing system” (ATDS) and related TCPA matters, there appears to be growing consensus on “Robocall”...more
6/24/2019
/ Auto-Dialed Calls ,
Bad Actors ,
Do Not Call List ,
Enforcement Actions ,
FCC ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Robocalling ,
Safe Harbors ,
TCPA ,
Telecommunications
Voice service providers soon may dictate which calls will reach you. The FCC honed in on “unwanted calls” when it voted at its Open Meeting yesterday to adopt a Declaratory Ruling and Third Further Proposed Rulemaking (the...more
6/7/2019
/ Auto-Dialed Calls ,
Call Blocking ,
Declaratory Rulings ,
FCC ,
Opt-Outs ,
Robocalling ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Spoofing ,
TCPA ,
Telecommunications ,
Telephone Service Providers