Litigator of the Week Shoutout: Covington Leads Successful Challenge to Telephone Consumer Protection Act

A Covington litigation team led by Kevin King and Yaron Dori brought a successful challenge to a new Telephone Consumer Protection Act regulation issued by the Federal Communications Commission in December 2023. The rule that was challenged imposed certain restrictions on the transmission of a covered call or text when the statute itself required only the called party’s “prior express consent.”

The agency postponed the effective date of the new regulation just days before it was scheduled to take effect, citing as the basis for its action the fact that the challenge brought by Covington’s client, the Insurance Marketing Coalition, was still pending in the Eleventh Circuit. Less than an hour later, the Eleventh Circuit granted the petition, finding the FCC exceeded its statutory authority under the TCPA because the new restrictions “impermissibly conflict with the ordinary statutory meaning of ‘prior express consent.’” Kevin argued the case at the Eleventh Circuit for the IMC. The Covington team also included Matthew Glover and Sameer Aggarwal.