By: Jeffrey Backman, Esq. and Roy Taub, Esq.
Another federal court has held that marketing text messages are “telephone calls” subject to the TCPA’s Do-Not-Call rules, denying a motion to dismiss in Wilson v. Better Mortgage Corp., a case out of the Southern District of New York. The defendant argued that § 227(c) does not extend to text messages because the statute’s private right of action refers to “telephone call[s],” but the court rejected that position.
The court grounded its analysis in what it believed was the ordinary meaning of “telephone call” at the time of the TCPA’s enactment, concluding the term encompassed any communications by telephone, including text messages (even though text messages do not appear to have existed at that time). It emphasized that the same term appears in § 227(b), where courts have consistently treated texts as “calls,” and further reasoned that § 227(c)’s privacy-focused structure, if anything, reaches at least as broadly. The court also noted the FCC’s longstanding view, most recently codified in 2024, that the DNC regime extends to text messages.
Takeaway: Add one more district court to the column treating marketing texts as “calls” under the TCPA’s DNC regime, further deepening the patchwork of outcomes across jurisdictions.
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