Refreshing Relief Or Return Of The Robocalls? [telecom]

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by Chadwick A. McTighe , Neal F. Bailen and Jeffrey S. Moad

In a long-awaited decision, the United State Supreme Court issued a ruling in Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid, No. 19-511, on April 1, 2021, concluding that, to qualify as an autodialer under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act ("TCPA"), a device must have the capacity to use a random or sequential number generator to store or to produce phone numbers. In other words, in contrast to what some courts had concluded, it is not enough for the device simply to be able to store and then automatically dial numbers. This decision resolved a Circuit split in interpreting the TCPA and settled a debate among at least four different interpretations of the autodialer definition.