Things Just Got Tougher for Auto-Dialing Debt Collectors

Tired of getting debt collection calls for someone else on your new cell number? You’re in luck: a recent court ruling found some of those calls to be illegal. From law firm BuckleySandler:

“On May 11, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) requires consent from a current cell phone subscriber to receive automated calls – even if a former subscriber to the same number had previously given consent to be contacted.”

In the lawsuit, the debt collectors argued that the person they were trying to reach had given consent, making the misdirected call the equivalent of an honest mistake. The court was unmoved, writes Ballard Spahr:

“The Seventh Circuit found no support in the TCPA’s language or ‘the way the law understands consent’ for the debt collector’s argument that the court should equate the consent of the ‘called party’ with the consent of the call’s ‘intended recipient.’”

In plain English: even if the collection agency was trying to reach someone else, the call still violates the TCPA. And with potential fines of up to $500 for each violation, 

The ruling places a significant new burden on debt collectors (and others using auto-dialers) to make sure they’re calling the right number. From Davis Wright Tremaine:

“The case is significant because it significantly ups the ante for automated and prerecorded call violations under the TCPA (especially in that even live-operator calls, i.e., non-prerecorded calls – which constitute most commercial calling – can trigger liability if auto- or predictively-dialed)… Often, this disconnect between the phone number a company has, and the consent it believed it had associated with it, will not be known – and sometimes cannot be known – until after placement of the call(s) to the wrong party, who is in a position to correct this error.  But at [that] point, the call(s) occurred, and TCPA liability potentially attaches.”

Does that mean that cell subscribers won’t continue to get calls for previous owners of their new numbers? Not likely. Again, Ballard Spahr:

“In its opinion, the Seventh Circuit provided various options available to debt collectors that would allow them, consistent with the court’s reading of ‘called party,’ to continue to use autodialers permissibly. Such options included having a live person make the first call and then switch to an autodialer after verifying that the cell phone number was still assigned to the person who provided consent.” 

But at least you won’t be talking to a machine.

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Read the updates:

• Seventh Circuit Holds TCPA Prohibits Automated Calls to Cell Phones without Consent from Current Subscriber (BuckleySandler LLP) 

• Seventh Circuit Holds TCPA Requires Consent from Current Cell Phone Subscriber for Autodialed Calls (Ballard Spahr LLP) 

• Appeals Court Decision Ratchets Up Risk Factor for Those Delivering Autodialed and Prerecorded Calls (Davis Wright Tremaine LLP) 

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