Crunch San Diego, LLC v. Jordan Marks

Congress enacted the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) in 1991 to curb thenprevalent telemarketing practices involving a type of bulk-dialing technology known as an “automatic telephone dialing system,” which the statute defines as equipment which has the capacity— (A) to store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator; and (B) to dial such numbers. 47 U.S.C. § 227(a)(1) (emphasis added). The Ninth Circuit, by contrast, rewrote the definition to mean equipment which has the capacity—(1) to store numbers to be called or (2) to produce numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator—and to dial such numbers. App., infra, 24a (emphasis added). The question presented is: Whether the Ninth Circuit erred in expanding the TCPA’s definition of “automatic telephone dialing system”—in acknowledged conflict with the Third Circuit and in stark tension with the D.C. Circuit—to encompass any device with capacity merely to dial stored telephone numbers. (i)