Limits on Telemarketing Cell Phone Calls Leads to Litigation Explosion

The Wall Street Journal reports that the 22-year-old Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which curbs the phone calls allowed to consumer phone calls, has seen an uptick in litigation in recent years: "Since 2012, more than a dozen companies, including Papa John's International Inc., Bank of America Corp. and a Jiffy Lube International Inc. franchisee, have agreed to more than $200 million in settlements in TCPA suits. Four-fifths of all federal TCPA cases filed in or transferred to federal court have occurred in the past five years, according to a search of court records."

If companies use auto-dialers to call cell phones without consent, they "can be on the hook for $500 to $1,500 a call," the WSJ also reports.