Filing TCPA actions has become a form of sport for certain plaintiffs. In TCPA Blog’s latest Law360 column, our TCPA Team addresses the manufacturing of TCPA claims, which came to a head in a recent case involving an unabashed professional plaintiff who purchased at least 35 cellphones and numbers with the sole purpose of receiving calls to recycled numbers and then filing suit and cashing in. The article notes the growing use (and abuse) of the TCPA by such plaintiffs:
The TCPA has indeed created a cottage industry of professional plaintiffs and enterprising lawyers. A 1991 statute designed to limit unwanted spam marketing phone calls has been exploited time and again by those seeking to leverage the statutory damages provision of $500-$1,500 per call, text message or fax into a business enterprise. This is certainly not the constituency that the TCPA was intended to protect. Many are unabashedly gaming the system; they are affirmatively seeking out opportunities to sue, manufacturing TCPA claims and disingenuously claiming injury. They are purchasing numerous phones in targeted areas hoping to get reassigned number calls. They are submitting revocation of consent requests in ways that they believe will trip companies up. They are seeking out phone numbers that repeat the same digits. They are giving their roommates, significant others and friends their phone numbers to offer up as contact numbers and then suing the companies when they call. The list goes on and on.
The article goes on to examine the case and the court’s findings and how they may impact other TCPA actions, including the consolidated appeal from the FCC’s July 2015 ruling.
Click here to read the full article.
