TUNE IN TCPAWORLD: FCC Commissioner O’Rielly to be Addressing the TCPA Landscape at May 26, 2020 Teleforum

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Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) Comissioner Michael O’Rielly is renowned for this straight talk and common sense on TCPA issues.

O'Reilly

FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly

His exacting dissent to the FCC’s 2015 TCPA Omnibus ruling was the stuff of legend– and was ultimately proven dead right when the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals later obliterated the FCC’s expansive treatment of the TCPA’s ATDS definition as inconsistent with reasoned rulemaking.

Since 2015 he has remained a stalwart proponent of common sense reforms of the oft-abused TCPA. Just last year, for instance, he gave a fantastic speech explaining how “patchwork” ATDS interpretations have thrown the TCPAworld into chaos and urging industry participants to petition the FCC (and comment on pending petitions) to demand clarity and uniformity. His words then:

It’s your job to convince my colleagues and agency staff to [reform the TCPA]…  It will take extensive cooperation and collaboration with everyone else caught in the TCPA spider web, screaming the same message at the same fever pitch.

This was a remarkable entreaty from a sitting FCC Commissioner for TCPA defendants to raise their voices before the Commission—get up and get out to Washington to advocate for reform.

If you missed his remarks last year, you’ll have a chance to hear from Commissioner O’Rielly NEXT WEEK. He is attending a Federalist Society teleforum NEXT Tuesday, May 26, 2020. (And thanks to the little birdie that tipped me on this.)

Sign up here to attend.

Here’s an abstract:

On May 6, 2020, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants.  While the case focused specifically on the constitutionality of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) exemption allowing robocalls, without consent, to collect government debt, the fate of the statute itself hangs in the balance as the Supreme Court decides on an appropriate remedy. 

FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly… [will] discuss the implications of Barr v. AAPC within the broader TCPA landscape, including the nationwide circuit split on interpreting “automatic telephone dialing system” and the FCC’s role in resolving ongoing legal and regulatory uncertainty.  

TCPAWorld has obviously covered the SCOTUS review thoroughly with live coverage during the argument, definitive analysis following the argumentand a podcast breaking it down further. It is great that we can now point folks to get Commissioner O’Reilly’s thoughts on this as well.

The meeting is open to the public (not just Fed Soc members) and I highly encourage ALL of you to attend. You can bet the Czar and the royal court will be paying close attention. Maybe I’ll get a shout out (or that long-awaited podcast acceptance?).

 

 

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Published by Eric J. Troutman

The Czar of TCPAWorld Eric Troutman is one of the country’s prominent class action defense lawyers and is nationally recognized in Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) litigation and compliance. He has served as lead defense counsel in more than 70 national TCPA class actions and has litigated nearly a thousand individual TCPA cases in his role as national strategic litigation counsel for major banks and finance companies. He also helps industry participants build TCPA-compliant processes, policies, and systems. Eric has built a national litigation practice based upon deep experience, rigorous analysis and extraordinary responsiveness. Eric and his team feel equally at home litigating multibillion dollar telecommunications class actions in federal court as they do developing and executing national litigation strategies for institutions facing an onslaught of individual TCPA matters. They thrive in each of these roles – delivering consistently excellent results – while never losing sight of the client experience. While many firms now tout TCPA expertise, Eric has been there from the beginning. He built one of the country’s first TCPA-only defense teams and began serving as national TCPA counsel for his clients nearly a decade ago. This perspective allows him to swiftly develop the right litigation strategies for dealing with recurring problems, without wasting time on tactics that are bound to fail. Eric’s rich historical perspective and encyclopedic knowledge of the TCPA landscape also make him an invaluable resource to institutional compliance teams struggling to comply with the shifting regulatory landscape. No task is too small – or too big. Indeed, Eric and his team have helped build TCPA-compliant systems and processes for some of the largest and most complex corporate entities in the country. He commonly works with in-house compliance counsel to build and implement enterprise and business-line specific TCPA solutions, performs TCPA audits and drafts and reviews proposed TCPA policies and procedures. He and his team also have the technical expertise necessary to assist call centers seeking to develop TCPA-resistant call path architecture or to modify existing telephony and software integration to better insulate from potential TCPA exposure. Eric has built a reputation for thought leadership. An avid blogger and speaker, he has been at the forefront of the industry’s effort to push for clarity and a return to sanity for the TCPA for years. He was selected to advocate for the financial services industry on important TCPA issues before the Federal Communications Commission and co-authored the nation’s only comprehensive practice guide on TCPA defense. In his spare time, Eric leads defense teams representing banks and other financial services companies in consumer finance litigation matters. He has experience representing clients in UCC, TILA, RESPA FCRA, CCRA, CLRA, FDCPA, RFDCPA and FCCPA claims, as well as in fraud and bank operations issues.

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