Abusive and harassing robocalls and texts remain against the law, and consumers continue to have remedies available when they receive such unwanted communications

As reported by Law360, on July 6, 2020, The U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision upholding the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s sweeping ban on unsolicited and harassing autodialed and prerecorded telemarketing calls and text messages made to consumers without their consent.

The majority also supported a Fourth Circuit ruling removing an existing exemption to the TCPA that allowed robocalls to be made for the purpose of collecting federally-backed debts; such outreach is now deemed to be unconstitutional and in violation of the First Amendment.

Law360 notes that the ruling is considered a win for consumers; Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s controlling opinion took pains to acknowledge that “Americans passionately disagree about many things. But they are largely united in their disdain for robocalls.”

“Justices Kavanaugh’s and [Stephen] Breyer’s respective opinions epitomize that consensus by agreeing that the TCPA prohibits ‘almost all robocalls’ to cellphones,” said Lieff Cabraser partner Daniel M. Hutchinson, who represents consumers in multiple TCPA class actions. “So long as companies continue to place robocalls without prior express consent, there will continue to be a critical need for TCPA class action litigation.”

Read the full article on the Law360 site.

About Daniel Hutchinson

A partner in Lieff Cabraser’s San Francisco office, Daniel’s practice focuses on complex class and collective actions that advance the public interest. He is an advocate for underrepresented and disadvantaged communities, and has litigated cases involving unfair employment practices against immigrants. Daniel has pursued a series of consumer protection cases against major banks and financial services providers. His efforts have helped result in the largest monetary settlement in the history of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and ended harassing automated calls to millions of consumers.

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