The US Court of Appeals for Seventh Circuit recently ruled that for purposes of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the term “called party” refers to the current subscriber to a mobile number. Specifically, in Soppet v. Enhanced Recovery Company, LLC, 11-3819 (7th Cir. 2012), the court held “that ‘called party’ in § 227(b)(1) [of the TCPA] means the person subscribing to the called number at the time the call is made.”

The TCPA provides a cause of action where an automatic dialer is used to make unsolicited calls to a mobile phone. The term “calls” includes text messages. Under the Seventh Circuit’s interpretation, despite having received consent from a mobile subscriber, a business may still face liability for calling or texting a mobile number where the number has been reassigned and the new subscriber has not provided consent. Therefore, to avoid potential TCPA liability, a business would have to verify that the person who gave initial consent remains the subscriber before using an automatic dialer to call or text the mobile number.

Arent Fox is continuing to monitor cases regarding telemarketing and the TCPA. Please contact Anthony Lupo, Sarah Bruno, Matthew Mills, or Eva Pulliam with questions.