On January 15, the Federal Communications Commission defended its controversial July 10, 2015 Order (the “Order”) expansively interpreting the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) in a 110-page brief filed in ACA International et al. v. FCC et al., where several consolidated challenges to the Order by businesses and trade groups are being heard in
On January 11, in Club Texting, Inc.’s Petition for a Declaratory Ruling, the Federal Communications Commission issued an Order that has the potential of increasing the scope of senders who can be liable for unwanted text messages under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”). In the process, the FCC doubled-down on its controversial July
On December 11, 2015, the United States Department of Justice filed an intervenor’s brief in support of the constitutionality of the “emergency calls exception” in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), a federal statute regulating the usage of automatic telephone dialer systems. The issue embroils the government in a consumer dispute with Facebook, which is
Last Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would heighten the standards for obtaining class certification by requiring extra scrutiny as to the continuity of the damages claimed by the class representative and the putative class members. Lawmakers voted 211-188 to pass H.R. 1927, the Fairness in Class Action Litigation and
The Supreme Court’s latest arbitration decision is but the latest in a long line of decisions enforcing the strong federal policy enforcing arbitration clauses in consumer contracts. In DirecTV v. Imburgia, a 6-3 decision, Justice Breyer held that the Federal Arbitration Act preempts state laws, in this instance California’s, that invalidate arbitration clauses if
We have previously reported on ACA International’s appeal from the Federal Communications Commission’s July 2015 Order interpreting the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (“TCPA”) in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, including the joint brief recently filed by petitioners on November 25.
In addition to that joint brief,
Last month, Republican staff members on the Committee of Financial Services in the U.S. House of Representatives issued a Report criticizing tactics used by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the auto finance area. The Staff Report generally questions the CFPB’s disparate-impact claims under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”) and the Bureau’s use of
As we previously reported, several legal challenges to the Federal Communications Commission’s July 10, 2015 order (the “FCC Order”) interpreting the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (“TCPA”) were consolidated with the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals as ACA International, et al. v. Federal Communications Commission et al. The challengers believe the
As we previously reported, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, which was passed by Congress and signed by President Obama on November 2, amended the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991. The TCPA limits the usage of automatic telephone dialing systems and artificial/prerecorded messages. The recent modification allowed an exception to TCPA restrictions for
On November 24, 2015, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a Compliance Bulletin (2015-06), warning companies that they must ensure that consumer authorization is obtained before automatically debiting a consumer’s account and that required notifications to consumers must clearly describe the terms of the preauthorized electronic funds transfers (EFTs).
Importantly, for the first