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On August 27, an Illinois appellate court affirmed a trial court’s denial of a motion to compel arbitration in an FDCPA class action. The case involved a 2022 collection email about a charged-off account originally opened with a wireless provider in 2007 and later sold to a debt buyer. The plaintiff alleged that the defendants violated the FDCPA by failing to provide clear instructions for opting out of future email communications.

We are pleased to present our latest edition of Telephone and Texting Compliance News, providing insights and news related to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) has finalized its rule under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), addressing prior express consent requirements for sellers to send advertisements and telemarketing notices using an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) or artificial/prerecorded voice. Notably, the one-to-one requirement has been removed.

Chief Justice John Roberts has issued a temporary stay allowing President Trump to fire recently reinstated FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, even though she was fired without cause.

Slaughter, the lone Democrat on the Commission, had been reinstated by a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

An investigation by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government has concluded in a report that following the events of January 6, 2021, financial institutions, including Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)-regulated financial institutions (banks), coordinated with federal law enforcement to surveil and share the private financial information of persons engaged in transactions commonly associated with certain political affiliations—specifically targeting individuals associated with conservatism and the political right.¹ The authors of the report note that the conclusions of the investigation raise serious concerns and doubts about financial institutions’ commitment to respecting Americans’ privacy rights and fundamental civil liberties.