Telephone and Texting Compliance News — May 2024

We are pleased to present our latest edition of Telephone and Texting Compliance News, providing insights and news related to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). In this month’s newsletter, we continue our coverage of the FCC Enforcement Bureau’s “Spring Cleaning” initiative to combat robocalling, including its cease-and-desist letter ordering Alliant Financial to mitigate unlawful traffic on its networks and a related Public Notice. We also discuss the bureau’s first-of-its-kind Enforcement Advisory classifying a group of repeat robocallers and their personnel, known collectively as Royal Tiger, as a Consumer Communications Information Services Threat. Finally, we cover the FCC’s adoption of two Notices of Apparent Liability focusing on an illegal robocalling scheme during the New Hampshire presidential primary.

This month’s Litigation Update explores recent court decisions that provide defendant-friendly clarity on technology and platforms that meet the definition of an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS). These include the Third Circuit’s confirmation in Perrong v. Montgomery County Democratic Committee that list-mode calls, which involve a device dialing telephone numbers from a customer list, do not trigger ATDS provisions. In Soliman v. Subway Franchisee Advertising Fund Trust, Ltd., the Second Circuit held that the TCPA’s ban on the use of an artificial or prerecorded voice does not apply to text messages. Litigants also received critical appellate guidance on structuring class settlements and related fee requests from the Eleventh Circuit in Drazen v. Pinto, which involved a settlement of claims premised on the use of an ATDS.

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

Regulatory Update

• Federal Communications Commission Finishes Its “Spring Cleaning” Initiative, Taking Action Against Alliant

• Enforcement Bureau Designates Group of Repeat Robocallers as “Significant Threat” to Communications Services

• Commission Issues Two NALS From Illegal Robocalling Scheme During New Hampshire Primary

Litigation Update

• Third Circuit Confirms that “List-Mode” Calls Do Not Trigger ATDS Provisions

• Second Circuit Clarifies TCPA Rules for Text Messages

• Eleventh Circuit Undoes GoDaddy TCPA Settlement

Subscribe To Viewpoints