Companies are continuing to reap the rewards of the Supreme Court’s decision in Facebook v. Duguid earlier this year, in which the Supreme Court confirmed a narrow reading of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s (TCPA) much-beleaguered definition of an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS). In the latest victory, Pascal v. Concentra, Inc., out of
In late September, the Department of Justice (DOJ) entered into two consent orders to resolve allegations related to violations of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA). The past year has seen an uptick in regulatory scrutiny centered on military consumer protection laws. The DOJ’s recent consent orders highlight this trend.
The SCRA provides various legal
On Thursday, September 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued its opinion in Lindenbaum v. Realgy LLC, reversing a district court opinion that found the Telephone Consumer Protection Act was unconstitutional from 2015 to 2020. Specifically, the Sixth Circuit found that the government-backed debt exemption — added to the TCPA
2020 was a transformative year for the consumer financial services world. As we navigate an unprecedented volume of industry regulation, Troutman Pepper is uniquely positioned to help its clients find successful resolutions and stay ahead of the compliance curve.
In this report, we share developments in 2020 on consumer class actions, background screening, bankruptcy,
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.
