Personal TCPA Liability For Corporate Officers

Since passage of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act ("TCPA"), courts and businesses have grappled with whether – and to what extent – TCPA liability extends to corporate officers. While the corporate veil often protects corporate officers from personal liability in other contexts, the wording of the TCPA ("It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States . . . to make any call . . . using any automatic telephone dialing system . . .") has been interpreted such that corporate officers can, in certain limited circumstances, be subject to TCPA liability. However, several recent court decisions have suggested that courts are beginning to re-examine the merits of subjecting corporate officers to personal liability under the TCPA.