At last week’s annual meeting of the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association, TCPA Blog’s Michael Daly participated in a panel discussion that examined how the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins is affecting class action litigation under the TCPA, the FCRA, and other recurring “gotcha” statutes. The panel explored a number of interesting issues with which courts have been grappling in TCPA cases, for example whether a plaintiff has a “concrete” harm for purposes of Article III if she received a fax without an opt-out notice, received a solitary call or text, or received calls or texts on phones that she had purchased for the specific purpose of receiving errant calls and texts to recycled numbers—all of which are all too common in TCPA litigation. The panel also examined how the decision will affect not only jurisdiction but also certification, specifically whether courts should certify classes if any harm involved is inherently individualized. The panel was moderated by Katherine Armstrong, who worked at the FTC for more than thirty years on FCRA initiatives and other consumer protection issues.
