President Biden’s pattern of selecting strong consumer advocates for executive branch leadership positions continued last Thursday, when he appointed current Federal Communications Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel to serve as acting chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Serving as a Democrat commissioner at the FCC for the past eight years, Rosenworcel is a staunch supporter of
On January 15, in response to a petition from Acurian seeking clarification on the non-commercial purpose exemption, the FCC held that prerecorded calls to residential phone numbers seeking participants for FDA-mandated clinical pharmaceutical trials did not constitute “advertising” or “telemarketing” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) because they “do not identify property, goods, or
On December 21, Congress passed the $900 billion spending and COVID-19 relief package — the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA) — which President Trump signed on December 27. Although the CAA’s monetary relief provisions aimed at helping individuals and small businesses stave off the financial strain of the COVID pandemic have taken center stage, the
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument today in Duguid v. Facebook to decide, once and for all, whether an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS), as defined in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), requires a random or sequential number generator.
Background
In its late 2018 Marks decision, the Ninth Circuit found that storage of
On Tuesday, December 8, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the Duguid v. Facebook case to decide, once and for all, whether an automatic telephone dialing system (“ATDS”), as defined in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), requires random or sequential number generation. The case is poised to resolve a considerable circuit
In Emily Smith v. The Hartford, No. 4:20-CV-00041-CLM, 2020 WL 4815143 (N.D. Ala. Aug. 19, 2020), the Court refused to consider mental incapacity, among other arguments, as grounds to overcome the Eleventh Circuit’s strict exhaustion requirement for ERISA. This decision reinforces the very narrow exceptions available to a plaintiff in circumventing the exhaustion requirement.
Today, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Duguid v. Facebook to decide, once and for all, whether an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS), as the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) defines the phrase, requires random or sequential number generation. The case will be argued before the Court in the October 2020 Term.
Background
In its
On July 2, 2020, three Senators – John Thune (R-S.D.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), and Todd Young (R-Ind.) – introduced a bill to update the law regarding the use of electronic documents in commerce.
The Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-Sign Act), 15 USCS § 7001 et seq., was originally enacted in
The United States Supreme Court issued its much-awaited decision in Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants on Monday, July 6, striking down the government-backed debt exemption in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The Court did not go so far as to invalidate the TCPA as a whole, however, finding instead that the unconstitutional
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a noteworthy order on June 25, 2020, in its continuing interpretation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). In its order, the FCC confirmed many courts’ existing interpretation of the TCPA, noting that any text platform that requires manual entry of telephone numbers and manual launching of texts on