Opinion ID: 77044
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Other Privacy Statutes

Text: 27 The district court uses the disjunctive language in the Electronic Privacy Communications Act (ECPA), 18 U.S.C. § 2520, and in 26 U.S.C. § 7431(c), which provides civil remedies for the unauthorized disclosure of tax return information, to illustrate that Congress knows how to draft damages provisions that award liquidated or statutory damages in the absence of any actual damages. After comparing the relevant text of these statutes to the DPPA, the district court concludes: The DPPA's language does not make the clear distinction between actual damages and statutory damages made by both the ECPA and Section 7431.... The unwillingness of Congress to adopt this clear language when drafting the DPPA shows that it did not intend to allow plaintiffs without actual damages to receive the $2,500 liquidated damages award. Kehoe, 2004 WL 1659617, at . We are not comfortable with this conclusion. 28 As stated above, when interpreting a statute, we operate under the assumption that Congress says what it means and means what it says. See Harry, 291 F.3d at 770. However, this does not mean that it is always appropriate to put any weight on what Congress chooses not to say. There may be many ways to verbalize the same point and just because Congress, according to Fidelity, did not employ the clearest language available does not mean that the language chosen should be stripped of its plain meaning. 29 On appeal, Fidelity cites the text and construction of the remedial provisions of five privacy statutes (including the ECPA) to support its interpretation of the DPPA. These privacy statutes are: 18 U.S.C. § 2710(c)(2)(A) (Video Privacy Protection Act or VPPA); 18 U.S.C. §§ 2520(c)(1)(A), (c)(1)(B) & (c)(2)(B) (ECPA); 47 U.S.C. § 551(f)(2)(A) (Cable Communications Policy Act or CCPA); 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(3)(B) (Telephone Consumer Protection Act); and 12 U.S.C. § 3417(a)(1) (The Right to Financial Privacy Act). Of these five privacy statutes, only two have remedial provisions sufficiently similar to the language in the DPPA: the VPPA and the CCPA. While there is no guiding case authority squarely addressing the relevant similar provision in the VPPA, 6 a district court previously addressed the relevant provision in the CCPA. See Warner v. American Cablevision of Kansas City, 699 F.Supp. 851, 858-59 (D.Kan.1988). Consistent with our conclusion in this case, the Warner court held that § 551(f)(2)(A) does not require proof of actual damages as a condition precedent to awarding liquidated damages. 7 30 Having considered the plain text of the DPPA's remedial provision, we conclude that a plaintiff need not prove actual damages to recover liquidated damages. Accordingly, we reverse the district court's order granting summary judgment in Fidelity's favor.