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Posts tagged as “ATDS”

7th Cir. Holds Insurer Had No Duty to Defend FDCPA, TCPA, and Related Common Law Claims

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently affirmed a trial court’s judgment that an insurer had no duty to defend a debt collector in an action brought by a consumer asserting claims under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), as well as common law claims of defamation and invasion of privacy.

6th Cir. Adopts Expansive Reading of TCPA’s Definition of ATDS, Joining 2nd and 9th Cirs.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently affirmed entry of summary judgment in favor of plaintiffs alleging violations of the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act for calls placed by their student loan servicer to their cell phones using an alleged automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) after they revoked consent to receive such calls.

11th Cir. Holds TCPA Consent Cannot Be Unilaterally Revoked, But Allows Unrelated FCCPA Claim to Proceed

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently reversed entry of summary judgment in favor of a satellite television provider against a consumer on claims that it violated the Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act by attempting to collect a debt it knew had been discharged in bankruptcy and directly contacting the plaintiff consumer knowing she was represented by counsel.

3rd Cir. Holds ATDS Must Have ‘Present Capacity’ to Autodial, Follows ACA Int’l

Following the D.C. Circuit’s ruling in ACA Int’l v. FCC, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit recently held that an “automatic telephone dialing system” under the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act must have the present or current capacity to store or produce telephone numbers using a random or sequential number generator, and to dial those numbers. A copy of the opinion in Bill Dominguez v. Yahoo, Inc. is available at:  Link to Opinion.  The plaintiff purchased a cellphone with a reassigned telephone number.  The prior owner of the number subscribed to an email service provider’s “Email SMS Service,”…

Mass. SJC Holds Mass. Debt Collection Regs Apply to Creditors that Auto Dial or Don’t Leave Messages

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) recently held that Massachusetts debt collection regulations, which limit how often a creditor may attempt to contact a debtor via telephone in order to collect a debt, apply to creditors that use automatic dialing devices or voluntarily decide not to leave voicemail messages. A copy of the decision in Armata v. Target Corporation is available at:  Link to Opinion. The plaintiff initiated a matter in Superior Court, alleging the defendant violated 940 Code Mass. Regs. § 7.04(1)(f), which provides that “[it] shall constitute an unfair or deceptive act or practice for a creditor to contact…

ANALYSIS: DC Circuit Dials Back on FCC’s Broadening of Telephone Consumer Protection Act

In July of 2015 the Federal Communications Commission handed down an order that unreasonably expanded the reach of the 1991 Telephone Consumer Protection Act, exposing any business using a telephone to the risk of TCPA liability. A decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in ACA International v. FCC, et al. serves to undo some of the damage caused by the FCC’s order. Among the restrictions provided for by the TCPA, it was those portions of the Act which prohibited the use of an “automatic telephone dialing system” that were adversely impacted by the 2015 order.…

SD Fla. Holds Servicer’s Calling System Was Not ‘ATDS’ Under TCPA

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida recently held that a dialing system — which required calls to be manually dialed, could not place calls without human input, and could not dial predictively, or store or produce telephone numbers independently, which in this case was the Avaya X1 Platform — was not an automatic telephone dialing system (“ATDS”) under the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Accordingly, the Court entered summary judgment in favor of the defendant mortgage loan servicers. A copy of the opinion in Ferrer v. Bayview Loan Servicing, LLC et al. is available at:  Link…

7th Cir. Rejects Narrow Reading of TCPA Consent

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently concluded that a consumer’s consent to receive promotional information from a retailer is sufficient consent under the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) to receive other mass marketing texts. The primary issue the Seventh Circuit addressed was the scope of the consent the consumer provided when she gave her cell phone number to the retailer.  The consumer argued that she only provided her cell phone number to receive special discount offers, and did not consent to “mass marketing” text messages. The Seventh Circuit rejected the argument, and determined that the…

N.C. Fed. Court Rejects Defendant’s TCPA Arguments as to ‘Revocation of Consent,’ ‘ATDS’

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina recently rejected a defendant’s arguments that its contract with the plaintiff did not allow revocation of prior express consent under the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), and that the defendant’s telephone communication system was not an “automatic telephone dialing system” under the TCPA. A copy of the opinion in Cartrette v. Time Warner Cable, Inc. is available at:  Link to Opinion. In 2013, the plaintiff requested that the defendant install cable services at her home, and agreed to a services agreement that included a paragraph titled, “Robo-Calls,” stating: “[Defendant]…