Strength in Numbers: The Seventh Circuit Joins the Third and Eleventh Circuits in Limiting the Definition of an Automatic Telephone Dialing System under the TCPA
By Andrew C. Glass, Gregory N. Blase, Joseph C. Wylie II, Molly K. McGinley, Hollee M. Boudreau, and Adam R.D. Paine
The Seventh Circuit recently acted to limit the definition of “automatic telephone dialing system” (“ATDS”) under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”). In Gadelhak v. AT&T Services, Inc., [1] the court ruled that a dialing system that “neither stores nor produces numbers using a random or sequential number generator,” but rather “exclusively dials numbers stored in a customer database,” “is not an ‘automatic telephone dialing system’ as defined by the Act.” In construing the definition of ATDS narrowly, the Seventh Circuit joined the interpretation adopted by the Third and Eleventh Circuits and rejected the Ninth Circuit’s differing interpretation.
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