| Volume 144 Number 28 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
COVID-19 has thrown the economy into a tailspin. As people have been laid off, furloughed, or are working fewer hours, bills can pile up. This week, for Financial Literacy Month, we’re looking at ways to manage — and today, it’s all about dealing with debt. Here are some ideas to start regaining your financial footing when you have more month than money. Click here for more.
Ketchup shortages hit U.S. following bump in takeout orders during the pandemic
There’s a certain segment of the U.S. population with “that drawer” in their refrigerator. It’s the one that’s filled with individual packages of mayo, mustard, duck sauce, and other condiments they’ve hoarded from takeout orders.
Well, those people may need to start rationing the ketchup they’ve collected because they may not get more packets anytime soon. The Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. is currently facing a nationwide ketchup shortage due to a supply chain issue.
The shortage stems from many sit-down restaurants adopting a takeout format during the COVID-19 pandemic to keep business going. This sharply increased demand for individual ketchup packets to go with food orders.
Click here for more.
Your Money
A closing disclosure is a form containing important details about your mortgage that you will review for accuracy before you close on your home. The closing disclosure needs your full attention if you want to avoid surprises at the closing table. Here's more about how to read your closing disclosure and why this document matters. Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
Supreme Court holds if all a device does is call numbers as directed, it's not an Automatic Telephone Dialing System under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA) proscribes abusive telemarketing practices by, among other things, restricting certain communications made with an “automatic telephone dialing system.” The TCPA defines such “autodialers” as equipment with the capacity both “to store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator,” and to dial those numbers. 47 U. S. C. §227(a)(1). Petitioner Facebook, Inc., maintains a social media platform that, as a security feature, allows users to elect to receive text messages when someone attempts to log in to the user’s account from a new device or browser. Facebook sent such texts to Noah Duguid, alerting him to login activity on a Facebook account linked to his telephone number, but Duguid never created that account (or any account on Facebook). Duguid tried without success to stop the unwanted messages, and eventually brought a putative class action against Facebook. He alleged that Facebook violated the TCPA by maintaining a database that stored phone numbers and programming its equipment to send automated text messages. Facebook countered that the TCPA does not apply because the technology it used to text Duguid did not use a “random or sequential number generator.” The Ninth Circuit disagreed, holding that §227(a)(1) applies to a notification system like Facebook’s that has the capacity to dial automatically stored numbers. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that to qualify as an “automatic telephone dialing system” under the TCPA, a device must have the capacity either to store a telephone number using a random or sequential number generator, or to produce a telephone number using a random or sequential number generator. Congress’ chosen definition of an autodialer requires that the equipment in question must use a random or sequential number generator. That definition excludes equipment like Facebook’s login notification system, which does not use such technology. Facebook v. Duguid, et al.(2021) Click here for more.