iHappy Thursday TCPA World!
R.E.A.C.H. is literally fighting to keep the lead generation industry alive and cases like this make it really hard to show the FCC that businesses, especially publicly traded ones, are following basic principles.
So, Defendants Online Insurance Solutions LLC (“OIS”) filed a Motion to Dismiss and SelectQuote Insurance Services filed a Motion for Judgment of the Pleadings in the Northern District of Ohio. Tsolumba v. SelectQuote Insurance Services, et al., 2023 WL 6146644 (N.D. Ohio Sept. 20, 2023)
Both DENIED.
Plaintiff Essienne Tsolumba brought a class action against Defendants for sending text messages without consent to individuals on the DNC Registry. And that is a problem!
Defendants argued that Plaintiff cannot show that she is a “residential telephone subscriber” as required by the TCPA.
In its analysis, the Court noted that the TCPA generally distinguishes between ‘residential’ lines and other protected lines. Though this distinction is evident from the text of the TCPA, the Court is not persuaded that cellular phones possess inherent characteristics that prevent them from benefitting from certain protections.
“The privacy interests they [cell phones] implicate are just as strong as wirelines, perhaps more so.”
Also, the FCC “has been clear in interpreting ‘residential subscriber’ to include cell phones” because “it is more consistent with the overall intent of the TCPA to allow wireless subscribers to benefit from the full range of TCPA protections and “it is well-established that wireless subscribers often use their wireless phones in the same manner in which they use their residential wireline phones.”
The Court held that Plaintiff’s allegations are sufficient to state a claim for violations of the TCPA.
Takeaways:
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Scrub telephone numbers against the Do-Not-Call Registry.
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The FCC presumes wireless subscribers who ask to be put on the national Do-Not-Call list to be residential subscribers.
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Also, just do better!
Til next time, Countess!!!
