Platform

Last week, the FCC issued a forfeiture order against Dialing Services, LLC (“Dialing Services”) $2,880,000, finding that Dialing Services made automated calls to wireless phones without prior express consent, in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”).  Dialing Services is a platform that offers automated calling services to its customers, and this Order is the culmination of the FCC’s investigation of the company dating back to 2012.

In 2012, FCC staff determined that Dialing Services had made more than 4.7 million calls to wireless phones in violation of the TCPA during a three-month period.  The Enforcement Bureau (“Bureau”) issued a citation in March 2013, directing the company to certify that it had stopped making calls in violation of the TCPA.  During a follow-up investigation, the staff determined that Dialing Services had continued placing calls after the citation, including 184 additional unauthorized calls to wireless phones in May 2013.  As a result, the FCC issued a Notice of Apparent Liability (“NAL”) in May 2014, proposing a $2.94 million fine.  (The ultimate forfeiture order reduced this amount to $2.88 million based on evidence that some of the calls were made with consent.)

In response to the NAL, Dialing Services asserted (among other things) that unlike its customers, it was merely a platform and therefore did not “make” or “initiate” the calls at issue under the TCPA.  The FCC applied its test for determining whether a party “initiated” or “made” a call for TCPA purposes from the 2013 Dish Network declaratory ruling:  whether the party “takes the steps necessary to physically place a telephone call” or, alternatively, is “so involved in the placing of a specific telephone call as to be directly liable for making it.” 
Continue Reading FCC Fines Calling Platform $2.88 Million for TCPA Violations

In May 2015, reports about the German government’s plans to establish federal German cloud infrastructure (the “Bundes-Cloud”) raised concerns about the possible introduction of data localization requirements (preventing the storage and processing of data outside Germany).  The criteria for the use of cloud services by Germany’s federal administration, which have recently been published, now give shape to these concerns.
Continue Reading Data Localization Requirements Through the Backdoor? Germany’s “Federal Cloud”, and New Criteria For the Use of Cloud Services by the German Federal Administration