First Ringless Voicemail Message TCPA Decision Sides With Plaintiff [telecom]

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A federal judge in Michigan is the first to declare in a published dispositive opinion that a ringless voicemail message (RVM) is a "call" regulated by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). In an opinion issued on July 16, 2018, in Saunders v. Dyck O'Neal, U.S. District Judge Gordon J. Quist of the U.S. District Court, Western District, Michigan, noted Congress' broad descriptor "any" in prohibiting "any call," and noted that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Supreme Court have generally construed the TCPA broadly in ruling that new and emerging telephone technologies are governed by the TCPA, including voicemail messages, text messages and email-initiated text messages. Judge Quist also noted that plaintiff received the notifications and listened to the voicemails on her phone, so the practical effect is the same, regardless of whether her phone rang before the voicemail was left. In Judge Quist's view, a contrary holding would be "absurd."