ACA International said today that it has filed an amicus brief in a lawsuit involving the revocation of consent as it pertains to alleged violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
In this particular case, the District Court for the Central District of California ruled that a plaintiff did not use reasonable means to revoke consent from receiving text messages from the defendant because the plaintiff did not follow the proper instructions to have the communications halted.
Rather than simply replying “stop” to any of the messages, the plaintiff responded using phrases like “I would appreciate [it] if we discontinue any further texts” and “thank you but I would like the text messages to stop can we make this happen.” The District Court noted that the plaintiff had filed other lawsuits against other companies after engaging in similar behavior.
The case was subsequently appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In its brief, ACA asked the Ninth Circuit to affirm the lower court’s ruling and uphold the dismissal of the lawsuit. ACA stepped up and filed the amicus brief as it “anxiously” awaits a ruling from the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia it the group’s lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission, which issued a declaratory ruling on the TCPA back in July 2015. From ACA:
ACA submitted its “friend of the court” brief to the Ninth Circuit to combat the TCPA trend of “revocation of consent” claims based on “unreasonable revocation methods” manufactured by entrepreneurial plaintiffs while, at the same time, helping to define, at least in the Ninth Circuit, what it means to effectively revoke consent using a reasonable method under the TCPA.
