This week, an Eleventh Circuit panel, in a 2-1 decision, reversed the approval of an incentive payment to the named plaintiff, calling the payment an unauthorized bounty. The case involved a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) class action settlement that the majority characterized as being "just like so many others that have come before it." But this familiarity was "exactly the problem." According to the court, the district court "repeated several errors that, ... Keep Reading »
Telecommunications Class Action Articles
The latest class action developments and trends in the telecommunications industry, including news, key cases, and strategies.
No Speaking? No Standing!
On November 15, the Eleventh Circuit decided Cordoba v. DirecTV, LLC, further exploring the issue of when class actions achieve Article III standing. The plaintiffs alleged that DirecTV and the company with which it contracted for telemarketing services, Telecel Marketing Solutions Inc., violated the FCC regulation that requires telemarketers to maintain an internal do not call list. The class consisted of people who allegedly were repeatedly contacted despite informing ... Keep Reading »
District Courts Split on Whether Bristol-Myers Squibb‘s Specific Personal Jurisdiction Analysis Bars Nationwide Class Actions In Districts Beyond Defendant’s Home Venue
The ramifications of the Supreme Court’s decision in Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court of California, San Francisco Cty., 137 S. Ct. 1773 (2017), remain unsettled. In Bristol-Myers Squibb, the United States Supreme Court rejected California’s "sliding scale approach" to assertions of specific personal jurisdiction. California’s Supreme Court had addressed a nationwide mass action and held that California could assert specific jurisdiction over the claims of ... Keep Reading »
Careful What You Wish For – Additional Discovery Requested by TCPA Class Plaintiff Leads to Decertification Order in Northern District of Illinois
Federal courts have a continuing obligation to ensure that class action certification remains appropriate throughout the duration of a case. Accordingly, it is well established that if class certification is later deemed improvident, the district court may decertify a previously certified class. That is precisely what the Northern District of Illinois did in Johnson v. YAHOO! Inc., No. 14 CV 2028, 2018 WL 835339 (N.D. Ill. Feb. 13, 2018), in addressing a previously ... Keep Reading »
Plumbers Overcome Spokeo-Based Standing Blockage in Putative TCPA Class Action
The Northern District of Illinois cleared the way for a plumbing company’s putative TCPA class action against Allstate Insurance Company and Oh Insurance Agency by denying defendants’ motions to dismiss, which were inspired by the Supreme Court’s Spokeo v. Robins decision. The plumbing company alleged that the insurance companies committed TCPA violations when they placed two phone calls to it: one went to voicemail and another was answered by a company employee. The ... Keep Reading »
Circuit Court Finds Putative Class Affidavits, Combined With Other Records, May Satisfy Ascertainability Requirement
Defendants BMW and Creditsmarts were parties to a marketing agreement through which BMW offered its direct automotive “up2drive” loans to borrowers at participating independent car dealers through Creditsmarts’ internet-based business-to-business lending platform. Creditsmarts used a third party, Westfax, to fax over 20,000 advertisements to independent car dealers during a 30-day period. Plaintiff City Select Auto Sales received one of these faxes and brought a putative ... Keep Reading »
Lease-Termination Fee Class Fails Third Circuit Ascertainability Requirement
Using the Third Circuit’s comparatively robust ascertainability standard, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania recently denied certification of a class of tenants allegedly charged an improper lease-termination fee and subjected to collections calls in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692, et seq. In its order, the district court explained that under the Third Circuit’s ascertainability precedent, ... Keep Reading »
Dish Network Liable for $61 Million After North Carolina District Court Trebles Damages in TCPA Class Action
A North Carolina district court recently held that Dish Network (“Dish”) willfully violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) when Satellite Systems Network (SSN) made more than 50,000 telemarketing and sales calls to phone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry on Dish’s behalf. The named plaintiff alleged that SSN, acting as Dish’s agent, made these calls in violation of the TCPA and sought injunctive and monetary relief on behalf of a class of all ... Keep Reading »
2017 Carlton Fields Class Action Survey Highlights
Carlton Fields recently released its sixth annual Class Action Survey, which is based on detailed interviews with general counsel and senior legal officers at 373 companies operating in more than 25 industries. Those individuals shared their thoughts and best practices on class action exposure and management. Highlights from this year’s survey include data on the types of class actions companies faced in 2016 and the likely next wave of class action. Class-Actions By ... Keep Reading »
TCPA Class Certified Based Largely on “Concrete Injury” Determination
Following the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Spokeo Inc. v. Robins, 136 S. Ct. 1540, 1549 (2016) – which held that Article III standing requires a concrete injury, even when an injury has otherwise been established for statutory purposes – there has been a debate as to what constitutes Article III “concrete injury” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA), 47 U.S.C. § 227. With certain exceptions, the TCPA creates a statutory cause of ... Keep Reading »
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