Mike Daly Quoted by Law360 on 2022 Consumer Protection Cases and Policy Outlook
Business litigation partner Mike Daly spoke to Law360 about some of the consumer protection cases and regulatory developments to watch in 2022, including the future of mass arbitration and robocall litigation.
Daly said Viking River Cruises v. Moriana would be an important 2022 arbitration case. According to the publication, the Supreme Court agreed to consider whether the Federal Arbitration Act preempts a California state law that prevents individual arbitration of representative claims under the Private Attorneys General Act. Thus, the high court’s ruling in the matter “could send a slew of disputes to individual arbitration and send other states’ legislatures back to the drawing board,” Daly explained.
Regarding litigation under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), Daly noted, “Even after the Supreme Court confirmed in Facebook v. Duguid that the TCPA’s autodialer restrictions only apply to equipment that generates numbers randomly or sequentially, the statute is still top of mind for businesses that call consumers — and for the cottage industry that has taken to targeting them.”
Law360 further reported that the Ninth Circuit is set to tackle the issue of whether courts can certify and award hefty statutory damages to classes of consumers that have no injury or actual damages. “The threat of astronomical aggregate statutory damages can create hydraulic pressure to settle even marginal claims. But it can also afford arguments for remitting damages on due process grounds or denying certification on superiority grounds,” Daly stated. “When and how to resolve these questions have split the circuits and are on a trajectory toward the Supreme Court — whether in this case or one of the many others like it.”
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