Court shoots down effort to get robocall case scrapped

The United States District Court in Arizona is not budging on requests for a major spam call case to be dismissed.

Avid Telecom is being sued by 49 states for allegedly making billions of spam phone calls from 2018 to 2023, including to people of the Do Not Call Registry. However, the company has been trying to stall and get rid of the case altogether, according to a news release.

But the court has not honored Avid Telecom's requests to do so, according to a court document showing that numerous motions made by them were shot down.

"This case does not involve technical or policy considerations outside the conventional experience of judges," the court document states. "There is no need to stay and refer this case to either the FCC or FTC. The Court denies the motion because this case does not involve any of the limited set of circumstances that have been reserved for administrative resolution under the primary jurisdiction doctrine."

The move by the court won praise from Attorney General Kris Mayes.

“Avid Telecom’s blatant disregard for federal and state consumer protection laws cannot and will not be tolerated,” Mayes said in a statement on Thursday. “I am grateful to the Court for denying the defendants’ attempts to dismiss or delay this case. We will continue to push to hold Avid and its owners accountable for allegedly facilitating the relentless barrage of robocalls harassing and annoying countless Arizonans.”

The Center Square reported in May 2023 that Avid Telecom, which is located in Tucson, made roughly 24 billion calls within the time frame stated, including 7 billion to those on the aforementioned registry, including 2 million to Arizonans on the list. Mayes' office also settled a lawsuit in November with Old Town AC, LLC, for illegal telemarketing.