Automatic Telephone Dialing System (ATDS)

An automatic telephone dialing system (or “ATDS”) is a special type of dialing system that has been highly regulated by the TCPA.

To qualify as an “automatic telephone dialing system,” a device must have the capacity either to store a telephone number using a random or sequential generator or to produce a telephone number using a random or sequential number generator.”

As a result, predictive dialers that generate numbers randomly are ATDS systems and must be carefully used. For the most part, modern ACDs and predictive dialing systems do not randomly generate numbers to call and are arguably not ATDS systems as defined by the TCPA.

However, call centers that use predictive or auto diallers should carefully review the current state of the law in this area as it changes frequently.