TCPA Update, Clear Definition of Autodialers Sought
Richmond partner Alan Wingfield was mentioned in a May 26 Communications Daily article about lawyers arguing that the 1991 Telephone Consumer Protection Act needs to be clarified and updated to keep up with new technology.
According to some attorneys, if the law is clarified, businesses won’t have to guess which parts of their phone systems could violate the TCPA and at what point they are ok, which would allow more information to get to consumers. Others state that recent court rulings were steps forward, while yet others think the decisions destroyed parts of the TCPA, which made it easier for businesses to get away with using autodialers.
In discussing courts that have issued inconsistent decisions about what constitutes an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) under the TCPA, Alan points out one case, Modica v. Green Tree Servicing, that draws a line in the sand as to what one is.
“Unlike the many decisions that have come down on defining what an ATDS is, it actually gives you detail on how you can design a system to either be or not be an ATDS,” he said. “The actual line being drawn in this opinion, to me, is what makes it stand up to be a leading case.”