On July 14, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Steidinger v. Blackstone Medical Services that consumers cannot sue businesses for unwanted marketing text messages under a key provision of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The case is one of the most significant TCPA decisions in years.
But don’t ramp up your SMS campaigns just yet. This ruling doesn't give anyone free rein to send marketing texts, and the landscape is more complex than it may appear.
Seventh Circuit Rules Marketing Text Messages Are Not "Telephone Calls" Under the TCPA
Blackstone Medical Services (Blackstone) sent marketing texts to consumers who had already asked the company to stop — some by replying "STOP," others by adding themselves to the National Do-Not-Call Registry. A class of consumers sued under Section 227(c)(5) of the TCPA, which creates a private right of action for individuals to file suit when they receive more than one unwanted "telephone call" from the same company in a 12-… Read the complete article here...
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