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The customer giveth...and the customer taketh away. Their consent that is.

The US District Court for the Southern District of California has ruled that a consumer can revoke their consent to be autodialed or receive recorded messages at their mobile number either orally or in writing.

The case is Gutierrez vs. Barclay's Bank. Gutierrez is suing the bank for violating the TCPA by continuing to call and text his and his wife's cell phone after he told them not to. Gutierrez gave both numbers to the bank on his credit card application, which by the FCC's declaratory ruling constitutes consent to be autodialed or messaged at those numbers. But after he went past due and started getting calls and texts, he orally withdrew his consent.

The court denied Barclay's motion for summary judgement (which would have ended the lawsuit) where they argued Gutierrez needed to "put it in writing". The court said there is nothing in the TCPA that requires either the provision or revocation of consent to be in writing.

While its never good to see a creditor in trouble for possibly violating the TCPA, there is a silver lining in this cloud.

Gutierrez did not argue against the FCC's ruling on Continue reading →