SCOTUS Denies Animal Hospital's TCPA Cert Petition vs. Drug Firm Elanco

The U.S. Supreme Court denied Ambassador Animal Hospital's Telephone Consumer Protection Act cert petition (see 2403210005), said a text-only docket entry Monday (docket 23-552). The Nov. 20 petition sought to reverse the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision affirming the district court’s dismissal of Ambassador’s TCPA complaint against Elanco, a veterinary pharmaceutical company. Elanco allegedly sent Ambassador two faxes inviting its veterinarians to an informational dinner seminar, but the lower courts held that the faxes didn’t constitute unlawful unsolicited ads under the TCPA because they didn’t explicitly solicit purchases for the company products. The plaintiff alleged that the fax invitations were a pretext for marketing Elanco’s veterinary drugs and thus were unsolicited ads under the TCPA.