NO FOOLIN’: Court Finds Threadbare ATDS Allegations Sufficient to Survive Pleadings Stage Post Facebook

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Happy New Year everyone!

Here in TCPAWorld it is officially Year 1 P.FB. (Post-Facebook.)

As I explained yesterday, the Courts are far from arriving at a pleadings standard for ATDS claims in the one year that has passed since Facebook was decided.

Apropos, just yesterday a court held that essentially any allegations of autodialer usage is sufficient to survive the pleadings stage because Facebook is essentially only relevant at the MSJ phase:

Given the Supreme Court’s decision in Duguid, determining whether [Defendant] used an ATDS when it allegedly made calls to Swartz will be more appropriate at summary judgment than in a motion to dismiss. Without the benefit of discovery, it would be extremely unlikely that Swartz could gain knowledge of the specific type of telephone technology [Defendant] employed. With discovery, Swartz may be able to provide facts that support her claim that [Defendant] used an ATDS. At the same time, [Defendant] will have an equal opportunity to defend against claims that it used an ATDS.

Indeed, the Court found the following allegations sufficient to demonstrate ATDS usage:

1) the cellular telephone called; 2) the content of an automated message; 3) the dates of the calls; 4) the calling telephone numbers; and 5) the number of calls.

Ok… but how does that relate to the use of an RoSNG to store or produce telephone numbers to be called?

Baffling.

Bottom line folks–as I’m about to explain in about 30 minutes–there is no reliable ATDS pleadings standard right now.

The case is Swartz , Civil No. 3:21-CV-01064, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 60610 (M.D. Pa.  March 31, 2022).

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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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