Advertising Law Blog

This week, Law360 quoted Advertising, Marketing & Promotions Partner Scott Shaffer when reporting on a recent record-setting $75 million TCPA settlement agreement. The settlement, which was reached with Capital One Financial Corp. and three collections agencies, covered claims for more than 21 million autodialed cell phone calls. Although the size of the settlement is extreme, attorneys believe other settlements of this size are unlikely to recur because the sheer volume of the calls is unlikely to be duplicated. Shaffer noted, “the plaintiffs' bar is so active in filing these class action lawsuits, that if a company embarked on a calling campaign that was alleged to be against the law, it would likely get hit with a lawsuit pretty quickly before it built up 21 million calls.” Shaffer cautioned that companies that send autodialed calls or text messages in volume would be wise to regularly review these practices. “The lesson to be learned from this is that the meter is running very quickly under the TCPA, so when you’re deciding how to contact customers or potential customers or people who owe you money, you need to think long and hard about whether you have the appropriate consent to do so,” Shaffer said.

Shaffer subsequently wrote articles on this matter for multiple media sources including Bloomberg BNA's Class Action Litigation Report, Privacy Law Watch and Privacy & Security Law Report.