Two recent rulings in Klassen v. Solid Quote LLC, No. 23-0318, 2023 WL 7544185 (D. Colo. Nov. 14, 2023), and Sowders v. Scratch Financial, Inc., No. 23-0056, 2023 WL 7525900 (S.D. Ohio Nov. 14, 2023), emphasize the need to challenge overbroad and unascertainable class definitions in TCPA suits. In both cases, the defendants’ motions to dismiss resulted in rulings that effectively narrowed the plaintiffs’ proposed classes.
In Klassen, the District of Colorado modified the plaintiff’s proposed class definition of “[a]ll persons . . . where [] the person’s telephone number was registered on the National Do-Not-Call-Registry.” Klassen, 2023 WL 7544185, at *2–3. It found that plaintiff’s proposed definition was overbroad because “a statutory violation [of the TCPA] requires a residential subscriber ‘[to have] registered his or her number on the national do-not-call registry.”’ Id. at *4 (quoting 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(c)(2)). Accordingly, the court narrowed the proposed class to include only individuals who “certify [that] they registered their own number(s)” on the National Do-Not-Call-Registry, as opposed to individuals who may have had their number placed on the Registry by someone else, for example someone who had that number before it was reassigned to the called party. Id.