I still see confusion from time to time on whether a call to a business number can violate the TCPA.
The short answer is: “yes and no.”
As hopefully everyone knows, the regulated technology portions of the TCPA (227(b)) apply to business cell phones. So even if a cell phone is used for business purposes, a caller still must have consent to leverage either an ATDS or a pre-recorded/artificial voice message to call such numbers.
On the other hand, calls to business numbers cannot trigger the TCPA’s DNC provisions–those only apply to residential numbers (which include cell phones, but not business lines.)
In KYLE MIHOLICH v. SENIOR LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, Slip Copy2022 WL 1505865 (S.D. Cal. May 12, 2022) the Court broke these rules down pretty well and gave a couple of additional nuanced (correct) rulings here.
The Miholich case involved a reconsideration request by a Defendant that had already lost a motion to dismiss. The Defendant argued that the complaint failed to state facts demonstrating it had made the calls at issue. But since the Complaint literally alleged that the Defendant had made the calls at issue… well, it lost.
It also lost on the issue of whether or not the Plaintiff’s phone was a business phone. On the one hand the Defendant showed that the Plaintiff had registered the number as a business number with a state insurance website. On the other hand the Plaintiff swore he also used it as a personal number. And that fact–that Plaintiff also used the number for personal purposes–was sufficient to create a jury question that had to go to trial.
So some additional rules to keep in mind here:
- If a business number is inadvertently registered on the DNC, there is still no cause of action for calling that number (good news);
- If a caller calls a residential number on the DNC thinking its a business number and for the purpose of a B2B call it STILL violates the TCPA (bad news);
- Even if a called party uses a number for a business purpose her/she can still sue for DNC violations if they also use the phone for residential purposes (And many people do that post-COVID.)
So you bring all this together and the TCPA DNC rules are REALLY tough for B2B folks to comply with in the absence of consent. Even if you think you are calling a business number and there is evidence it is a business number and you are calling for a business purpose –you are still not safe. As Miholic demonstrates.
Happy Monday!
If a call or text b2b to a cellphone manually written text even If I use a software to locate business information available on google, I should be safe?
It looks in this case I am safe but there’s a lot of details and most of the times it looks like is not but the documents from FCC stated.” In the 2012 TCPA Order (2012 TCPA Order), the Federal Communications Commission (“the
Commission”) took steps to protect consumers from unwanted telemarketing calls pursuant to
the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA).1
The protections the Commission
adopted will protect consumers from unwanted autodialed or prerecorded telemarketing calls,
also known as “telemarketing robocalls.”
The key here is autodialed or prerecorded calls.
At this point I don’t see any information explaining in detail these points. I am worried about this, and I am sure a lot of people are in the same way.
Texting or calling a mobile number manually will be good if I don’t have any system that helps me doing a lot at the same time?
Thanks in advance
cant give legal advice over a blog buddy, but generally even manual marketing calls will trigger the DNC rules when made to a residential number (including a cell phone)–and many “business” cell phones are actually used for personal purposes too so– be careful!