The Telephone Consumer Protection Act limits the ability of businesses to make unwanted sales calls.
The Supreme Court recently decided a case concerning the TCPA. In order for the TCPA to apply, a call must be from an “autodialer.”
The Supreme Court held that:
A device is an autodialer under the TCPA only if it can store or produce telephone numbers using a random or sequential number generator. A device that merely stores and then automatically dials telephone numbers, but does not have the capacity to use a random or sequential number generator, is not an autodialer and is therefore not subject to the TCPA’s prohibitions.
See Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid, Case Number 19-511.
Therefore, if a company makes calls and does not use a system which dials randomly (without any systemic method) or sequentially (one number followed by the next number), there is no TCPA violation.
For example, if a company gets a person’s home phone number, and randomly makes calls using an automated phone system, there is no TCPA violation, if the system does not dial random or sequential numbers.
Unfortunately, this will make it difficult, if not impossible, to succeed in many TCPA cases. There will be many situations in which a company puts a phone number into an automated system, and make calls at random times; Under these circumstances, there is no TCPA violation.
There is already talk in Congress to amend the TCPA, so that it covers calls from an automated system, which does not have the capacity to make random or sequential calls.
If you have had problems with unwanted phone calls, please feel free to call
Attorney Robert M. Singer, 2752 Whitney Avenue, Hamden, CT 06518,
203-248-8278, rsingerct@yahoo.com
Serving New Haven County and all of Connecticut