Judge Rules Consent Cannot be Revoked Orally when Part of Written Contract

A Judge has granted the defendant's motion for summary judgment in Barton V. Credit One. Plaintiff Carlton Barton sued Credit One for violations of the TCPA after they called him several times to inquire about an outstanding balance owed on his credit card, which he had obtained through Credit One. Barton claimed that he opted out of the phone calls orally, but that Credit One continued to call him. The Judge held that because he had consented to receive such calls in his cardholder agreement, and that the cardholder agreement included instructions for opting out of those calls in writing, oral revocation of consent was insufficient. Read the complete opinion here. Learn about telemarketing consent and other telemarketing rules. Consider speaking with a telemarketing attorney to learn about telemarketing compliance topics like autodialer laws, cell phone telemarketing laws, do-not-call list compliance, etc.

FCC Finalizes $120 Million Fine Against Alleged Caller ID Spoofer

After first proposing the fine several months ago, the FCC has concluded its investigation into Adrian Abramovich's alleged caller ID spoofing operation. The FCC has fined Abramovich $120 million for "malicious spoofing that was part of his massive robocalling operation aimed at selling timeshares and other travel packages." Read the FCC's press release here.

Court of Appeals Rules in Favor of FTC in Avatar Technology Case

Many of you may recall that last year the FTC began treating calls using Avatar, or soundboard, technology the same as any other prerecorded robocall. The FTC published a Staff Advisory Letter announcing that change in November 2016 and officially implemented the new interpretation of the technology in May 2017. The Soundboard Association sued the FTC and then appealed after the US District Court ruled in favor of the FTC. On April 27th, the DC Court of Appeals held that "the letter was properly issued and didn’t violate the Administrative Procedure Act’s notice-and-comment requirements." This is a blow to those who were hoping that there would be decreased regulation over this technology, which relies on human intervention to carry on the calls using prerecorded voice snippets. Read the FTC's press release here. Learn more about avatar telemarketing compliance and other telemarketing regulations.