On March 16, 2018, in a long-awaited and much-anticipated decision, a unanimous panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated two important rulings from the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) 2015 declaratory ruling and order concerning the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA): (1) the Commission’s “clarification” of the types of calling equipment that fall within the TCPA’s definition of “automatic telephone dialing system”; and (2) the Commission’s treatment of reassigned wireless numbers for purposes of TCPA liability. On two other rulings, the Commission’s approach to revocation of consent and the scope of its exemption for time-sensitive healthcare calls, the court upheld the FCC.
