“FORCE OF PRECEDENT”: Third Circuit Court of Appeals Tosses ATDS TCPA Case Against NRCC– But It Didn’t Want To

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals tossed a TCPA SMS ATDS case against the National Republican Congressional Committee last week– even though it didn’t seem to want to. That case concerned the definition of the term ‘automatic telephone dialing system,’ which is a necessary component of the use-of-an-automatic-telephone-dialing system element. The Supreme Court defined such a system as follows:To qualify as an ‘automatic telephone dialing system,’ a device must have the capacity either to store a telephone number using a random or sequential generator or to produce a telephone number using a random or sequential number generator. From that passage, Anthony argues, as has at least one other federal judge, 2 that random or sequential number generation is not a necessary element of a TCPA claim. Still the fact the panel seemed “force[d]” to rule in Anthony’s favor shows there is some momentum toward reviving these ATDS cases–so watch out!