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CEB Prac. Guide § 2B.18: "Called Party" -- Subscriber Issues

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In Balschmiter v. TD Auto Finance LLC, 2014 WL 6611008 (E.D.Wis. 2014), Judge Stadtmueller denied class certification of a TCPA class defined essentially as either references or cell-phone transferees or both: “All persons within the United States who, on or after October 21, 2009, received a non-emergency telephone call from or on behalf of TDAF to a cellular telephone through… Read More

In Meyer v. Diversified Consultants, Inc., 2014 WL 5471114 (M.D.Fla. 2014), Judge Toomey found that a “regular user” was the “called party” under Osorio/Breslow. In the Motion to Dismiss, Defendant argues that “[b]ecause plaintiff was not the subscriber of the telephone, she was not the ‘called party’ under the TCPA and Count I of the class action complaint must be… Read More

In Moore v. Dish Network L.L.C., 2014 WL 5305960 (N.D.W.Va. 2014), Judge Groh granted summary judgment to a TCPA “wrong party” Plaintiff. The facts were as follows. On December 19, 2011, Chester Moore signed an application with Cintex wireless for a cell phone subsidized by the federal Lifeline program. At the time of his application, Moore had a cell phone… Read More

In Birchmeier v. Caribbean Cruise Line, Inc., --- F.Supp.2d ----, 2014 WL 3907048 (N.D.Ill. 2014), Judge Kennelly held that a TCPA class was ascertainable, rejected the Defendant’s argument that, under Soppet, only the subscriber had standing and it could not be determined whether the subscriber answered the cellular telephone. Defendants appear to be making a two-part argument: first, the people… Read More

On July 21st, an ex parte was filed with the FCC asking it to interpret the TCPA consistent with Utility Air Regulatory Group v. Environmental Protection Agency, 2014 U.S. LEXIS 4377 (June 23, 2014), where the United States Supreme Court Supreme Court decision supporting the position advanced by Wells Fargo that the term “called party” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)… Read More

The Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit replaced it's June 5, 2014 decision, and issued a substitute opinion here, stating that the issue on appeal previously was decided by its Osorio decision, which had defined “called party” as the subscriber, and that “each succeeding panel is bound by the holding of the first panel to address an issue of law,… Read More

In Breslow v. Wells Fargo, here, the 11th Circuit followed the 7th Circuit's Soppett decision to find that "called party" under the TCPA is the subscriber to the cellular telephone.  "At bottom, the FCC recognized that debt collectors are in a better position to determine whether a party’s consent is still valid. That is, a person who is assigned a… Read More

United Healthcare has filed a petition with the FCC essentially taking a run at Soppett.  According to the FCC, United Healthcare indicates that it obtains prior express consent from individuals before placing healthcare-related informational calls to wireless telephone numbers using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice.   “Unbeknownst to United,” however, “the wireless telephone numbers for… Read More

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