Post-Facebook v. Duguid Litigation Roundup

As part of Manatt's continuing monthly coverage of the aftermath of Facebook v. Duguid and how district courts are applying it to determine whether a calling system meets the Supreme Court's newly clarified definition of an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), we report on some notable decisions since our last roundup. While the results remain somewhat mixed, a growing number of federal courts (if not a majority) are adopting Facebook and holding that use of a random or sequential number generator is a necessary prerequisite to an ATDS finding. At the district court level, defendants have generally continued to fare well under the new ATDS standard both at the pleadings and the summary judgment stage. These courts are also increasing rejecting what some have called the "Footnote 7" argument-referring to footnote 7 in the Facebook decision, where the Supreme Court suggested in dicta that randomly or