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Class certification granted in TCPA suit against satellite provider
On August 1, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia granted a plaintiff’s motion for class certification in an action against a satellite TV company (defendant) for allegedly placing unwanted telemarketing robocalls. According to the order, the plaintiffs alleged that the defendant retained a communications company to sell the defendant’s services and that the communications company purchased a list of leads and phone numbers from a third party to make telemarketing calls. According to the plaintiffs, the communications company failed to scrub the list for numbers on the national do-not-call list and called those numbers in violation of the TCPA. The district court noted that “[t]here are two overriding questions in this case: (1) whether [the communications company] contacted class members listed on the do-not-call registry; and (2) whether [the defendant] is liable for [the communication company’s] actions.” The district court further noted that “[a]ny individual issues or defenses are limited and easily resolved with aggregate data from defendant []." In agreeing with the “plaintiffs’ contention that this is a ‘model case for the application of the class action mechanism,’” the district court certified a nationwide class of nearly 114,000 individuals whose telephone numbers were listed on the do-not-call list and who received more than one telemarketing call within any 12-month period at any time from the communications company to promote the defendant.
States create Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force
On August 2, the Utah attorney general joined the nationwide Anti-Robocall Litigation Task Force, which investigates and takes legal action against telecommunications companies responsible for bringing the majority of foreign robocalls into the U.S. According to the Utah AG's press release, the Task Force is a bipartisan nationwide effort of 50 attorneys general who have a joint goal of cutting down on illegal robocalls. Twenty civil investigative demands have already been issued by the Task Force to several gateway providers and other entities allegedly responsible for most foreign robocall traffic. According to a press release issued by the Delaware AG, “the Task Force will focus on the bad actors throughout the telecommunications industry to help reduce the number of robocalls that consumers receive and benefit the companies that are following the rules.”
FCC orders phone companies to block car warranty scammers
On July 21, the FCC announced it is ordering phone companies to stop carrying traffic regarding a known robocall scam marketing auto warranties. The FCC noted that the operation is also the target of an ongoing investigation by the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau and a lawsuit by the Ohio Attorney General. As previously covered by InfoBytes, the Ohio AG filed a complaint against multiple companies for participating in an alleged unwanted car warranty call operation. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for Southern District of Ohio, alleged that the 22 named defendants “participated in an unlawful robocall operation that bombarded American consumers with billions of robocalls.” The FCC’s order follows its announcement of actions taken to decrease robocalls, including sending cease and desist letters to several carriers in an attempt “to cut off a flood of possibly illegal robocalls marketing auto warranties targeting billions of consumers.” The announcement also noted that the FCC has authorized “all U.S.-based voice service providers to cease carrying any traffic originating from the [named] operation consistent with FCC regulations,” as detailed in the notice.
Ohio AG, FCC take action against robocall operation
On July 7, the Ohio attorney general filed a complaint against multiple companies for participating in an alleged unwanted car warranty call operation. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for Southern District of Ohio, alleged that the 22 named defendants “participated in an unlawful robocall operation that bombarded American consumers with billions of robocalls.” Specifically, the complaint alleged that the defendants “initiated over 77 million robocalls per day for the purpose of generating sales leads, many times in relation to the sale of Vehicle Service Contracts (‘VSCs’) that are deceptively marketed as ‘car warranty’ plans,” totaling at least 800 million call attempts. The defendants allegedly violated the TSR, the Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act, and the Ohio Telephone Solicitation Sales Act by, among other things: (i) deceptively representing the subject of the call; (ii) misrepresenting caller IDs, or “spoofing”; and (iii) acting as telephone solicitors without having registered as telephone solicitors with the Ohio AG’s Office, as required by law, and without having obtained and filed the required surety bond. The lawsuit coincided with the FCC’s announcement of actions taken to decrease robocalls, including sending cease and desist letters to several carriers in an attempt “to cut off a flood of possibly illegal robocalls marketing auto warranties targeting billions of consumers.” The announcement also noted that the FCC has authorized “all U.S.-based voice service providers to cease carrying any traffic originating from the [named] operation consistent with FCC regulations,” as detailed in a public notice to all U.S.-based voice service providers.
District Court gives final approval in TCPA class action settlement
On June 24, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York granted final approval of a $38.5 million settlement in a class action against a national gas service company and other gas companies (collectively, defendants) for allegedly violating the TCPA in connection with calls made to cell phones. As previously covered by InfoBytes, the plaintiff’s memorandum of law requested preliminary approval of the class action settlement. The settlement establishes a settlement class of all U.S. residents who “from March 9, 2011 until October 29, 2021, received a telephone call on a cellular telephone using a prerecorded message or artificial voice” regarding several topics including: (i) the payment or status of bills; (ii) an “important matter” regarding current or past bills and other related issues; and (iii) a disconnect notice concerning a current or past utility account. Under the terms of the settlement, the defendants will provide monetary relief to claiming class members in an estimated amount between $50 and $150. The settlement will additionally require the companies to implement new training programs and procedures to prevent any future TCPA violations. The settlement permits counsel for the proposed class to seek up to 33 percent of the settlement fund to cover attorney fees and expenses.
3rd Circuit: Student loan servicer’s calling system is not an autodialer under the TCPA
On June 14, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed a district court’s ruling in favor of a defendant student loan servicer, holding that it is not enough for telecommunication equipment to be capable of using a random or sequential number generator to dial telephone numbers in order to meet the definition of an automatic telephone dialing system (autodialer). Instead, to constitute a violation of the TCPA, the telecommunication system must actually employ such random- or sequential-number generation when placing the actual call. The plaintiffs filed a putative class action complaint against the defendant alleging it used an autodialer to call class members’ cell phones without their prior express consent. The defendant countered that the TCPA claims fail because its calling system “lacked the capacity to generate random or sequential telephone numbers and then dial those numbers.” As such, it could not be an autodialer. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendant, ruling that the defendant did not use an autodialer to place the calls at issue as the calling system did not have “the necessary present capacity to store or produce telephone numbers using a random or sequential number generator.”
On appeal, the 3rd Circuit disagreed with the district court’s finding that the defendant’s telecommunication system was not an autodialer, noting that the district court used too narrow a definition of the term “equipment” and holding that “an [autodialer] may include several devices that when combined have the capacity to store or produce telephone numbers using a random or sequential number generator and to dial those numbers.” Thus, the 3rd Circuit held that the district court erred in accepting defendant’s argument that the defendant’s telephone system was not an autodialer because the defendant’s SQL Server (which was capable of generating random and sequential numbers) was independent of the defendant’s dialing system.
Nonetheless, the 3rd Circuit affirmed the district court’s ruling on the basis that it did not matter whether the defendant’s calling system could be classified as an autodialer under the TCPA because the phone numbers were drawn from a contact list stored on the defendant’s SQL Server and not randomly generated. As such, the appellate court held that the plaintiffs’ claims fail because the defendant did not actually use random- or sequential-number generation when it placed the specific calls in question.
While agreeing with the decision to affirm, one of the judges argued that the majority focused on the wrong question. “In my view, the fundamental question is: what is an [autodialer] under Section 227(a)(1)? I would hold that a dialing system must actually use a random or sequential number generator to store or produce numbers in order to qualify as an [autodialer] under § 227(a)(1),” the concurring judge wrote. “Because [defendant’s] dialing system did not do so, it is not an [autodialer], and [defendant] is entitled to summary judgment.”
District Court grants defendant’s summary judgment in TCPA case
On June 6, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio granted a national bank’s (defendant) motion for summary judgment in a case alleging it violated the TCPA by placing unwanted telephone calls and text messages. According to the order, the plaintiff filed suit in April 2021, alleging the defendant called him 88 times without his consent regarding a debt using an automated dialing system in violation of the TCPA. The court found that the plaintiff had given his consent to be contacted when he signed a signature card for his account that included his number. The court noted that his consent permitted the defendant “to use text messaging, artificial or prerecorded voice messages and automatic dialing technology for informational and account service calls, but not for telemarketing or sales calls.” The court further concluded that “prior express consent permits a creditor to contact a debtor by any telephonic means,” and emphasized that the “TCPA is not intended to stop a bank from calling its customers, but rather to stop telemarketers from making random, sequentially generated ‘robocalls’ to consumers who do not wish to receive them.”
States vow to enter information agreements with FCC against robocalls
On May 31, a coalition of 41 state attorneys generals, on behalf of the National Association of Attorneys General, sent a letter to the FCC commending the agency for its efforts in combating robocalls. Specifically, the AGs praised the FCC’s “leadership in encouraging states to enter into information sharing agreements to facilitate fast, effective information sharing during the course of robocall investigations.” The AGs stated that they “believe these information sharing agreements represent an important continuation of the progress made to date in combatting robocalls,” and entering the agreements “honor our country’s tradition of federalism and evidences a mutual commitment to working towards addressing complex issues collaboratively.” Not all the signatories had entered information sharing agreements with the FCC at the time the letter was sent, but the letter affirmed “their commitment to making a good faith attempt to sign the agreements,” and encouraged the FCC to reach out to the included point of contact for each state to move forward with the agreements.
FCC acts to stop international robocalls
On May 19, the FCC unanimously adopted proposed rules to ensure gateway providers that channel international call traffic comply with STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication protocols and validate the identity of the providers whose traffic they are routing to help weed out robocalls. As part of the agency’s robocall mitigation efforts, the proposed rules would require gateway providers to (i) “develop and submit traffic mitigation plans to the Robocall Mitigation Database”; (ii) “apply STIR/SHAKEN caller ID authentication to all unauthenticated foreign-originated Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) calls with U.S. North American Numbering Plan (NANP) numbers”; and (iii) “respond to traceback requests in 24 hours, block calls where it is clear they are conduits for illegal traffic, and implement ‘know your upstream provider’ obligations.”
“Gateway providers serve as a critical choke-point for reducing the number of illegal robocalls received by American consumers,” the FCC stated in its announcement. “The new rules require gateway providers to participate in robocall mitigation, including blocking efforts, take responsibility for illegal robocall campaigns on their networks, cooperate with FCC enforcement efforts, and quickly respond to efforts to trace illegal robocalls to their source.” Non-compliance may cause a gateway provider to lose its ability to operate. The FCC also announced it is requesting further comments on a proposal to expand robocall mitigation requirements to intermediate providers in the U.S. and not just gateway providers. The agency will also decide whether anti-robocall and spoofing rules should also apply to these intermediate providers, as they are currently not required to certify with the Robocall Mitigation Database.
Requiring domestic entry points to use STIR/SHAKEN, register in the Robocall Mitigation Database, and comply with traceback requests from the FCC and law enforcement will help the agency “figure out where these junk calls are originating from overseas,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. “These measures will help us tackle the growing number of international robocalls. Because we can’t have these scam artists multiplying abroad and hiding from our regulatory reach. We also can’t have them hiding from our state counterparts.” To aid efforts, the FCC announced that to date 36 states have signed memoranda of understanding with the agency to share resources and information to reduce robocalls.
Oklahoma establishes telephone solicitation restrictions
On May 20, the Oklahoma governor signed HB 3168, which establishes the Telephone Solicitation Act of 2022. The bill, among other things, prohibits (i) certain sales calls without the prior express written consent of the called party; (ii) commercial telephone sellers or salespersons from using certain technology to conceal their true identity; and (iii) commercial telephone sellers or salespersons from using automated dialing or recorded messages to make certain commercial telephone solicitation phone calls. The bill also establishes a time frame during which a commercial telephone seller or salesperson may make commercial solicitation phone calls. The bill is effective November 1.