Members of the TCPA Defense Force hosted a webinar discussing relevant issues and latest developments regarding the TCPA. The panelists broke down the following TCPA-related updates and explained how they might impact your company: 

I.      Supreme Court TCPA Opinion - Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants

The recent Supreme Court’s opinion in Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants Inc. struck down the government-backed debt exception to the TCPA, and maintained the general autodialer ban to cellphones. The panelists discussed the holdings and ramifications of the Supreme Court’s decision, both to the specific exception and to the TCPA as a whole.

II.      ATDS Definition – Supreme Court will Review Circuit Split in Facebook v. Duguid

After the DC Circuit’s Opinion in ACA International overturning the definition of an “automatic telephone dialing system” and ordering the FCC to come up with a new definition, the federal courts have been grappling over this issue, leading to divergent results in jurisdictions across the country. The Supreme Court just decided to take up this issue in Facebook v. Duguid and will review the Circuit split on what constitutes an ATDS. The panelists discussed how this may impact TCPA litigation and your compliance plans.

III.      ATDS Definition – Recent P2P Declaratory Ruling by the FCC

The FCC has not provided much guidance on the issue of the ATDS definition and its proceedings seeking public comment regarding what constitutes an ATDS have been pending since May of 2018. However, the FCC recently issued a relevant declaratory ruling concluding that “if a calling platform is not capable of originating a call or sending a text without a person actively and affirmatively manually dialing each [number], that platform is not an autodialer and calls or texts made using it are not subject to the TCPA’s restrictions[.]” The panelists discussed this ruling by the FCC and what impact it will have in TCPA litigation across the board.

Panelists:

• Artin Betpera, Partner

• David Carter, Partner

• Ernesto Mendieta, Associate

• Nadia Adams, Associate

• Nicole Su, Associate

• Nikku Khalifian, Associate