US Supreme Court Clarifies Autodialer Definition

The US Supreme Court has defined an 'automatic telephone dialing system' (autodialer) in the
Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) as a device which must have the capacity to generate numbers randomly or sequentially, and not merely the ability to dial from a list.

The 1991 TCPA requires prior express consent to use an autodialer system to call a cell phone. This is defined as 'equipment which has the capacity ... to store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator', and was intended to counter a telemarketing tactic of calling every number in existence, or in the phone book, including emergency lines and people with cell phones (who were paying for every minute of every call received).

According to the Insights Association (IA), the new definition potentially clears up decades of conflicting rules and decisions from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and various courts. During the hearing, Justice Sonia Sotomayor described the previous interpretation of autodialer technology to 'encompass any equipment that merely stores and dials telephone numbers' as taking 'a chainsaw to these nuanced problems when Congress meant to use a scalpel'.

However, IA outside counsel Stuart Pardau warned insights professionals not to let their guard down on TCPA compliance, because they will still need to ensure that their dialing systems are configured to comply with applicable laws, and appropriate agreements with clients, vendors and other partners remain in place. Howard Fienberg, VP Advocacy of the IA, added: 'This unanimous decision from the nation's highest court sets the TCPA on the right track, for the first time in many years, to fulfil its original purpose: targeting and punishing bad actors abusing consumers via the phone system, instead of punishing law-abiding good actors who try to abide by reasonable practices'.

Web site: www.insightsassociation.org .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.