Abusive litigation under the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) continues at high levels, despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2021 Facebook v. Duguid decision. ILR’s research examines the landscape of TCPA litigation three years after Duguid narrowed the scope of a key threshold issue for liability under the statute—the definition of what constitutes an “autodialer.” As the paper documents, TCPA lawsuit filings declined sharply immediately after Duguid, but they have begun to rise once more.
In the three years since the Court’s decision, the plaintiffs’ bar has sought out new pathways to leverage the TCPA, including pushing the boundaries of the Court’s autodialer definition, using other elements of the statute to bring TCPA claims, and pivoting to state-based TCPA equivalent laws. Our research also shows that a core group of firms is driving much of this litigation. In fact, between 2020 and 2023, just 10 law firms were responsible for more than half of federal TCPA filings.
ILR’s research lays out the numbers behind these trends and urges policymakers to avoid measures that would increase uncertainty for legitimate businesses or enable the plaintiffs’ bar to exploit the TCPA further.
