Supreme Court Narrows Definition of Automatic Telephone Dialing System In a Victory for Facebook
Highlights
SCOTUS settles a circuit split by adopting a narrower definition of automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) for computers that generate random telephone numbers to automatically dial
No federal robocall law currently deters businesses from using computers that store telephone numbers to automatically call or text consumers
Some senators have vowed to amend the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to adopt a broader definition of ATDS
In a 9-0 decision published on April 1, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court held that Facebook did not violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the federal law governing robocalls, when it sent text messages to a man who said he never had an account with the tech giant. In its holding in Facebook v. Duguid, the Supreme Court sided with the Third, Seventh, and Eleventh Circuits to settle a circuit split by adopting the narrow definition for an “automatic telephone dialing system” (ATDS) under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
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