Monthly TCPA Digest — July 2022

We are pleased to present our latest Monthly TCPA Digest, providing insights and news related to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). In this issue’s Regulatory Update, we cover a first-of-its-kind FCC Enforcement Bureau Order directing all U.S.-based voice service providers to take immediate steps to mitigate suspected illegal robocall traffic from a group of robocallers. The Order calls for the providers to block traffic or terminate their business relationship with the robocallers — and to block all traffic from a number of originating providers that failed to respond to a previous FCC warning calling for them to stop carrying the robocallers’ traffic. Additionally, we report on legislation introduced in Congress to expand the scope of the TCPA. The Robotext Scam Prevention Act would amend the TCPA to cover text messages and expand the statutory definition of an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) to include a wider variety of devices used to automatically dial or text phone numbers. It would also provide a safe harbor enabling providers to use an ATDS to call or text a consenting person at a new number, as long as the caller uses the Commission’s Reassigned Number Database.

In our Litigation Update, we discuss how the Robotext Scam Prevention Act could undo judicial decisions that significantly limited the application of the TCPA to live calls and text messages. In its 2021 decision in Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid, the Supreme Court held that an ATDS must have the ability to store or produce a telephone number using a random or sequential number generator. The Eighth Circuit and Ninth Circuit, along with many district courts, have since rejected ATDS claims. Passage of the bill would result in major changes for both businesses and consumers.

If you have suggestions for topics you’d like us to feature in this newsletter, or any questions about the content in this issue, please feel free to reach out to an attorney on Mintz’s TCPA and Consumer Calling Practice team.
 

In This Edition

Part I – TCPA Regulatory Update

• Commission Takes Enforcement Action Against Robocallers
• Congress Introduces Legislation to Expand TCPA

Part II – TCPA Litigation Update

• Federal Circuits Weigh In on Facebook and Congress Seeks to Amend the TCPA

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