On May 13, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that the FCC will host a summit on July 11 “to examine industry’s progress” toward meeting the FCC’s deadline to implement “more reliable caller ID information to combat malicious spoofed robocalls.”  The summit is part of the SHAKEN/STIR initiative which is an “industry-led” program through which the FCC has urged phone companies to adopt matching standards for how calls are signed as legitimate and how…

Earlier this week, the Fourth Circuit struck down a provision of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) that exempted government-backed debts from the statute’s prohibition on automated calls to cellular telephones. According to the Court in American Association of Political Consultants, Inc., et al v. FCC, the debt-collection exemption does not pass strict scrutiny and, therefore, contravenes the Free Speech Clause of the United States Constitution. The Court, however, did not go so far as…

The United States Supreme Court ruled yesterday that arbitration agreements must explicitly authorize class arbitration in order for the process to be invoked by one of the parties. The decision overturns a Ninth Circuit ruling that permitted an employee’s arbitration to move forward on a class basis. Background In Varela v. Lamps Plus, Inc., Frank Varela, a Lamps Plus employee, filed a putative class action in the Central District of California alleging that Lamps Plus allowed…

On April 5, the Minnesota Department of Commerce issued guidance to the motor vehicle sales finance industry intended to clarify the types of entities that meet the definition of “sales finance company” under Minnesota law. The guidance solidified the Commerce Department’s stance that companies that purchase motor vehicle retail installment contracts must obtain a motor vehicle sales finance company license from the state.  Minnesota Statutes § 53C.01, subdivision 12, defines a “sales finance company” as:  [A]…

On April 3, the Northern District of West Virginia issued an order denying Monitronics International, Inc.’s motion for summary judgment on multiple Telephone Consumer Protection Act grounds. In re Monitronics Int’l, Inc., No. 1:13-md-02493-JPB (N.D. W.Va. April 3, 2019). Monitronics sought summary judgment, claiming there was no evidence that it was the seller under the TCPA and that there was no formal or apparent agency relationship between it and its authorized retail agents sufficient to…

On April 3, Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel told a House subcommittee that a robocall enforcement unit should be added to the Federal Communications Commission. Highlighting that consumers receive more than 5 billion robocalls a month (up from 2 million calls a month at the beginning of the Trump administration), Rosenworcel stated that “it’s time for the agency to create a new division in its Enforcement Bureau to focus strictly on robocalls.”   Speaking before the House…

Partners Virginia B. Flynn, Chad R. Fuller, and Alan D. Wingfield of Troutman Sanders LLP are mentioned in a March 22 Law360 article regarding the United States Supreme Court’s decision to grant review of PDR Network v. Carlton & Harris Chiropractic, a Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action. PDR Network is a company that sells healthcare products to doctors and other healthcare providers and is known for publishing the Physicians’ Desk Reference, a popular reference…