Certain messages do not violate the federal robocall ban.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of Facebook in a lawsuit over unwanted text notifications it sent. The case was brought by a man who received text messages from Facebook notifying him that an attempt had been made to log in to his account from a new device or browser. The man said he never had a Facebook account and never gave Facebook his phone number. When he was unable to stop the notifications, he filed a class-action lawsuit.
In 1991, legislators passed the Telephone Consumer Protection Act that would protect anyone with a cellphone from endless automated calls and messages. The law restricts calls made using an “automatic telephone dialing system,” a device that can “store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator” and then call that number.
The question before the Court was whether the law covers equipment that can store and dial telephone numbers even if the equipment does not use a random or sequential number generator. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the Court that it does not.
Two lawmakers have now said they would introduce legislation to expressly prohibit the practices of Facebook.
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For the Supreme Court as they interpret existing laws and the Constitution.
- For Congress as they take steps to amend the 1991 law to prohibit companies from issuing unwanted calls and texts.
Sources: Market Watch, SCOTUS.blog
