TCPA: SCOTUS rules in favor of CUNA’s position on ATDS definition Posted by AVCU on 8:40 AM

 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 in favor of CUNA’s position in Facebook v. Duguid Thursday, supporting a narrow scope for the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s (TCPA) definition of an automated telephone dialing system (ATDS).

CUNA filed an amicus brief in the case, expressing concerns about the TCPA’s effect on credit unions who may rely on technology systems to efficiently and effectively contact their members with important information regarding their accounts, including mandatory servicing calls and fraud alerts.

“Today’s decision is a major victory for credit unions and their members, whose ability to communicate important information was hampered by an overly broad definition of an ATDS,” said CUNA President/CEO Jim Nussle. “A clear, narrow interpretation of ATDS brings much needed clarity to both the regulatory and legal landscape.”

CUNA’s brief supported Facebook’s argument that consumer harms can be avoided by narrowly defining an ATDS to apply only to equipment that has the capacity to generate random or sequential numbers and to automatically call those numbers. The Court agreed, with no Justices filing dissenting opinions.