The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) has become fertile ground for plaintiffs seeking to use the prospect of aggregated statutory damages to extract sizable settlements. Although enacted to protect consumers, the law is being enforced in a manner that harms them by preventing them from receiving important telephone calls and text messages from businesses that fear running afoul of the law. The TCPA has plainly deteriorated into something far afield from its original intent 25 years ago.
A consolidated appeal pending before the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit seeks to challenge some of the most rigid interpretations of the TCPA from the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) recent Omnibus Declaratory Ruling and Order. The petitioners raise several compelling arguments that certain of the FCC’s interpretations are unreasonable.