The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) prohibits certain unsolicited telephone calls. The TCPA forbids calls using automatic telephone dialing systems to cell phones and telephone solicitations sent to residential telephone subscribers who have listed their phone numbers on the national do-not-call registry.

A recent 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in Chennette v. Porch.com, Inc. addressed a question of contacts made to cell phones that the recipients promote as business numbers.  Washington partner Steve Augustino was quoted in an article pertaining to the 9th Circuit Ruling and mentioned how it was "an overreach." He noted that there is a pending petition from 2016 at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that raises the same underlying question concerning whether a phone is residential or for business use.  As noted in the article, the 9th Circuit’s ruling blurs the lines between residential and business phone numbers conferred in such cases and could make it tougher for defendant corporations to have TCPA suits dismissed early.

Augustino is a leading practitioner in competition policy and rulemaking in the communications marketplace. He has guided clients through shifting policies, exponential growth, and extraordinary innovation in the telecommunications industry since the passage of the landmark Telecommunications Act of 1996.  

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