HUGE SUMMER WIN!: Massive New Certification Denial May Be the Beginning of the End for TCPA DNC Class Actions

Following the Supreme Court’s Facebook ruling the Plaintiff’s bar has shifted away from ATDS cases and toward TCPA cases arising from prerecorded calls or marketing calls to numbers on the DNC list.

While class actions involving DNC violations have found some success–the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has called these cases “tailor-made” for certification–a new decision out of Northern California suggests DNC cases may not be certifiable at all in many circumstances–and that is a huge deal.

In Payne v. Sierva Networks, Inc. 2024 WL 3585119 (N.D. Cal. July 29, 2024) the Court granted an affirmative motion to DENY certification in a suit arising out of alleged calls to numbers on the DNC in the business to business setting.

As I have said many times, just because a call is made for a business purpose does not protect a company from violating the DNC rules. If the number called is residential then the called party is still protected.…