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Chad is a partner in the firm’s Consumer Financial Services practice with a primary focus in financial services litigation. He is an accomplished trial attorney who has served as lead counsel in state and federal courts across the country in which he represents clients in consumer class actions and general business litigation. Chad has particular speciality with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and has also broadened his practice into more traditional areas of health care litigation.

We are pleased to share our annual review of regulatory and legal developments in the consumer financial services industry. With active federal and state legislatures, consumer financial services providers faced a challenging 2023. Courts across the country issued rulings that will have immediate and lasting impacts on the industry. Our team of more than 140 professionals has prepared this concise, yet thorough analysis of the most important issues and trends throughout our industry. We not only examined what happened in 2023, but also what to expect — and how to prepare — for the months ahead.

More than two years after the Supreme Court released its ruling in Facebook v. Duguid, confirming the meaning of automatic telephone dialing systems (ATDS) under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), a plaintiff has filed a petition for a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court to challenge the Ninth Circuit’s application of the Facebook decision. The Facebook ruling effectively closed the door on one of the broadest classes of TCPA-related litigation; since then, plaintiff-side advocates have worked ceaselessly, though largely unsuccessfully, to chip away at the ruling. If the Supreme Court accepts the appeal, this will represent a significant development in the ongoing saga of ATDS litigation.

On June 29, 2023, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking clarifying how consumers may revoke consent to receive calls or texts under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The FCC is accepting comments on the proposed rule until July 31, 2023.

On April 13, the Ninth Circuit issued an opinion affirming a district court’s summary judgment order on the grounds that under Borden v. eFinancial, LLC, discussed here, to qualify as an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) the telephone system must store or produce randomly or sequentially

Chris Willis, co-chair of the CFS Regulatory Practice, Announces the Publication of the 2022 CFS Year in Review and a Look Ahead

Troutman Pepper’s Consumer Financial Services Practice Group consists of more than 120 attorneys and professionals nationwide, who bring extensive experience in litigation, regulatory enforcement, and compliance. Our trial attorneys have litigated thousands of individual and class-action lawsuits involving cutting-edge issues across the country, and our regulatory and compliance attorneys have handled numerous 50-state investigations and nationwide compliance analyses.

We are pleased to share our annual review of regulatory and legal developments in the consumer financial services industry. Our team has prepared this organized and thorough analysis of the most important issues and trends throughout our industry. We not only examined what happened in 2022, but also what to expect — and how to prepare — for the months ahead.

As discussed here, on July 27, 2022, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals sua sponte vacated the district court’s approval of a $35 million class-action settlement in Drazen and Godaddy.com, LLC (Godaddy) v. Pinto. Although the parties had not briefed the issue before the Eleventh Circuit, the court ruled that the class definition

Do the text messages that Facebook sends to your phone with birthday reminders violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)? According to the Ninth Circuit in a recent decision, the answer is no because users provided their phone numbers to Facebook and, in order to qualify as an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) under

Do text messages sent by a chatbot fall within the provisions of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) prohibiting unsolicited calls made using an “artificial or prerecorded voice?” According to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, the answer to that question is no.

In Risher v. Adecco, Inc., the litigation

On October 12, the Ninth Circuit issued a decision, reversing the dismissal of a lawsuit on the grounds that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) does not extend to unwanted business texts. In Chennette v. Porch.com, the Ninth Circuit held TCPA statutory protections extend not only to individuals, but also to business entities.

Effective September 1, the American Arbitration Association (AAA) has finally updated its Commercial Rules and Mediation Procedures, concluding a two-year internal review. The amendments provide greater procedural discretion to arbitrators, further streamline expedited arbitrations, change the amount-in-controversy requirements for certain arbitration paths, and provide express confidentiality protections, among other things.

First, the amended