Worth the Wait! D.C. Circuit Vacates Key Portions of FCC’s July 2015 TCPA Order

At the Federal Communications Bar Association’s TCPA symposium in D.C. last month, panelists from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and private practice expressed uncertainty regarding when the D.C. Circuit would issue its much-anticipated ruling in the appeal of the FCC’s July 2015 Declaratory Ruling and Order (the “2015 Order”). It turns out that that day is today. And the ruling was well worth the wait.

The D.C. Circuit’s ruling upheld the FCC’s approach to revocation of consent (permitting revocation through any reasonable means) and the scope of the healthcare exemption, but it set aside the FCC’s expansive definition of an “automatic telephone dialing system” (ATDS) and its untenable approach to liability for communications to reassigned telephone numbers.