Overview
An unexpected lawsuit under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) can expose your business to millions of dollars in statutory damages. Greenspoon Marder’s attorneys defend companies at every stage of TCPA litigation and help businesses build calling and texting programs that stay within the law.
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act controls how businesses contact consumers by phone, text message, and fax. It applies to telemarketing calls, debt collection calls, appointment reminders, promotional texts, and nearly every other outbound communication that reaches a consumer’s cell phone or residential landline.
Each TCPA violation carries a statutory penalty between $500 and $1,500 with no proof of actual harm required. When a text blast reaches thousands of recipients without proper consent, a single marketing campaign can generate enough exposure to threaten a company’s financial stability. Plaintiffs’ attorneys file TCPA class actions regularly, and the law’s technical requirements make it easy to build a case around a procedural misstep.
Why it matters
Getting TCPA compliance right protects your brand, reduces litigation exposure, and preserves the value of your customer outreach. Getting it wrong can trigger costly lawsuits, regulator attention, and disruption to core sales and customer engagement channels. Our team helps businesses operationalize compliant programs without sacrificing growth.
Common risk areas
- Calls or texts to cell phones without proper consent, including marketing, informational, dual‑purpose, or mixed content communications
- Use of prerecorded or artificial voice messages and voice drops
- Autodialing and automated texting platforms, including click‑to‑dial, preview, and blended systems
- Consent management: obtaining, documenting, refreshing, and honoring consent across systems
- National and internal Do‑Not‑Call (DNC) compliance; company‑specific DNC policies and recordkeeping
- Opt‑out handling and revocation of consent across channels and vendors
- Reassigned and wrong numbers; validation, scrubbing, and safe‑harbor processes
- Lead generation, affiliate marketing, and third‑party vendor oversight, including contract controls and diligence
- Time‑of‑day, identification, and call abandonment rules
- Individual and class action exposure, statutory damages, and settlement leverage
How We Help
Our attorneys represent businesses in TCPA matters at every stage, from pre-suit demand letters through trial and appeal. We also work with companies that want to get ahead of the law by building consent management and compliance programs before problems arise.
- TCPA Litigation Defense: Individual claims, putative class actions, and multi-plaintiff suits at the trial and appellate level.
- Pre-Litigation Resolution: Early demand letter response, negotiated settlements, and pre-certification motions to contain exposure before a case gains momentum.
- Compliance Program Design: Consent language, opt-out workflows, call center policies, and vendor contract review tailored to how your business actually operates.
- FCC Regulatory Guidance: Advice on new FCC rules, available TCPA exemptions, and petitions for declaratory rulings.
- Vendor and Lead Generation Risk: Audit of third-party marketing relationships and contractual protections against downstream liability when a vendor’s conduct triggers a claim.
- Do Not Call Compliance: National and state DNC registry scrubbing processes, internal DNC list management, and personnel training programs.
Industries we serve
The TCPA reaches every industry that uses outbound calls or texts to reach customers. Our litigation and regulatory teams advise clients across a wide range of sectors, including:
- Financial services, mortgage lenders, and debt collectors
- Healthcare providers, hospital systems, and insurance companies
- Real estate brokers, property managers, and title companies
- Retailers, e-commerce brands, and subscription businesses
- Automotive dealerships and service centers
- Technology platforms and lead generation companies
- Political organizations and advocacy groups
- Nonprofits and charitable organizations
Frequently Asked Questions on TCPA Litigation
- I received a TCPA demand letter. What should I do first? Contact a TCPA attorney before responding or making any payment. Demand letters frequently overstate exposure and are written to prompt a quick settlement. An attorney can evaluate whether the claimed violations are legally sound, assess your actual exposure, and develop a response that does not inadvertently admit liability.
- Can a TCPA case become a class action? Yes, and that is where exposure can become very large. Plaintiffs regularly seek to represent all individuals who received the same call or text campaign. Courts have granted class certification in TCPA cases, which means liability can multiply across thousands or even millions of class members. Challenging class certification early is often one of the most effective defense strategies available.
- We use a third-party vendor to send our texts. Are we still liable? Potentially, yes. Courts have held that a company can be liable for TCPA violations committed by its vendors when the company controlled or ratified the vendor’s conduct. Using an outside vendor does not automatically transfer liability. Your contracts with those vendors should address indemnification, and their consent collection and dialing practices should be reviewed before they make contact on your behalf.
- Does the TCPA apply to B2B calls? The TCPA’s core restrictions focus on calls and texts to residential lines and personal cell phones. Calls to business lines generally face fewer restrictions, though some provisions still apply. The analysis turns on whether the number dialed is a cell phone, the nature of the call, and whether an ATDS was used. State laws may impose additional requirements even for business-to-business communications.
- How does the TCPA interact with state telemarketing laws? Many states have their own telemarketing and automatic dialing statutes that go beyond the TCPA. Florida, California, Washington, and Texas each have state laws that create separate liability. A company running a national calling program may need to satisfy the requirements of every state where called parties reside, not just the federal statute.
Our approach
We focus on practical, business‑first solutions that integrate with your existing systems and vendors. From intake language and consent capture to campaign execution and recordkeeping, we help you build defensible programs that scale. When disputes arise, our team moves quickly to manage risk, control costs, and protect your brand.
Contact us
To discuss your TCPA compliance program or a pending matter, please contact Greenspoon Marder LLP. We are ready to help assess risk, enhance controls, and defend your business.
