Ali Gadelhak v. AT&T Services, Inc.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (“TCPA”), Pub. L. No. 102- 243, 105 Stat. 2394, prohibits use of an “automatic telephone dialing system” (“ATDS”) to initiate voice calls and text messages to certain phone numbers, including numbers assigned to cellular telephone service, without the prior express consent of the called party. 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1)(A). Petitioner sued Respondent for violating this provision after Respondent’s computer program sent him automated text messages asking him, in a language he did not understand, to participate in a survey. The district court entered judgment for the Respondent on the grounds that the dialing system used to send the messages does not qualify as an ATDS, and the Seventh Circuit affirmed. The TCPA defines ATDS 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). The question presented is whether this definition encompasses only systems that autodial telephone numbers generated using a random or sequential number generator, or whether those restrictions also apply to systems that autodial telephone numbers stored in a list, like the system used by Respondent in this case. The Court recently granted a petition for a writ of certiorari to consider the same question in Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid, No. 19-511, 2020 U.S. Lexis 3559 (July 9, 2020).