In March 2019, plaintiffs Axel Derval and Morgan Simmons initiated a Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action lawsuit against Xaler – a cannabis delivery company. Plaintiffs alleged that Xaler employs a “uniform policy of causing text messages to be sent to consumers’ cellular telephones on Xaler’s behalf without prior express consent.” Xaler asserts that it
Any company that uses telephony systems for outreach to consumers got important and potentially good news on January 27, 2020, when the Eleventh Circuit released its much-anticipated opinion in Glasser v. Hilton Grand Vacations Company, LLC, No. 18-14499. The court held that a phone system must use randomly or sequentially generated numbers to qualify
In early January, President Trump signed the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (“TRACED”) Act into law, supporting bipartisan legislative efforts to curb robocalls. The Act gives the Federal Communications Commission greater enforcement authority against illegal robocallers. Specifically, under the new law, the FCC can now extend the statute of limitations by
Wire fraud cases, arising from what the Federal Bureau of Investigation calls “business email compromise,” are on the rise. In 2018, the FBI reported that business email compromise and other internet-enabled theft, fraud, and exploitation resulted in $2.7 billion of financial loss. See FBI – IC3 Annual Report Released. Surprisingly, even sophisticated parties and
Last week, in Morgan v. Adventist Health Systems/Sunbelt, Inc., et al., the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida joined a number of courts post-ACA International in holding that a telephony system must have the present capacity to randomly or sequentially generate telephone numbers in order to qualify as an
The United States Supreme Court has agreed to consider a challenge to the constitutionality of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). On Friday, January 10, 2020, the Supreme Court issued orders from the justices’ conference, which included an order for oral argument in Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants – a case involving a
In December, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia refused to submit to arbitration a dispute alleging violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act because plaintiff Keith Hobbs provided a declaration stating that he did not visit defendant Apollo Interactive, Inc.’s website. In doing so, the Court kept alive a TCPA
Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga of the Southern District of Florida started the New Year by granting a motion to stay a pending Telephone Consumer Protection Act case, Barnes, et al. v. CS Marketing LLC, et al.
In Barnes, the plaintiffs allege that the defendants are vicariously liable for telemarketing calls placed to them
With the ever-changing case law surrounding the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, staying up to date with what cases are relevant and where courts stand on certain, very important definitions, can be an almost impossible task. Further, in the 28 years since the TCPA was enacted, the legislation has been considered outdated by many companies.
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The United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania recently held that a pro se plaintiff failed to plead facts sufficient to demonstrate that an agency relationship existed. This holding reinforced the need for specificity in Telephone Consumer Protection Act claims that allege vicarious liability.
In Robert D. Kline v. Elite Medical Laboratories