TCPA Compliance for Text Messages & SMS

There are 15 states with laws governing consumer solicitation by text message: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. All 13 of the states require express consent to send a marketing text message, with Connecticut requiring express written consent.Some general requirements include state registration as a telemarketer (license requirements), time of day requirements, disclosure of solicitor information (name of business, solicitor’s name, etc) and allowing returns of goods/services sold.

Express consent is explicit permission given by consumers for businesses to contact them via phone calls, SMS messages, or prerecorded voice messages. It is essential for businesses engaging in telemarketing or promotional text messages to obtain express consent from consumers to avoid legal penalties under TCPA and other messaging laws.

Yes. The only thing that SCOTUS’s ruling changes is how the TCPA’s ATDS definition applies to specific kinds of dialing technology.

While it remains to be seen how lower courts interpret the ruling, it seems nearly certain that including peer-to-peer (P2P) texting, triggered text alerts, and artificial intelligence or interactive texting systems will not be subject to the TCPA’s restrictions on the use of an ATDS. The consequences for mass texting systems is less clear but it is likely that those devices will also no longer be regulated as autodialers.

Since the Supreme Court decision in Facebook v. Duguid, multiple TCPA class actions have been filed alleging DNC violations. Marketers absolutely should not text numbers on the DNC list.

Yes. As far as the courts and regulatory agencies are concerned, text messages are regulated the same as voice calls. This is not affected by the Facebook decision.

To ensure compliance, you must follow key components such as scrubbing contact lists against the National Do Not Call Registry, providing an opt-out mechanism for consumers, and obtaining proper consent for marketing communications. Using tools like DNCScrub® can help maintain compliance with legal requirements.

Businesses are required to honor opt-out requests from consumers who no longer wish to receive future communications, such as marketing messages or promotional messages. A clear opt-out option must be provided in every message, whether it's for commercial or transactional purposes. This helps protect consumer rights and prevents unwanted messages.

Contact Center Compliance offers advanced scrubbing solutions like Litigator Scrub® and DNCScrub® to identify and remove phone numbers associated with unsolicited calls or text messages. These tools also help businesses stay compliant with state-specific laws and federal regulations to avoid millions of dollars in potential fines.

A comprehensive compliance checklist should include scrubbing phone numbers against DNC lists, documenting express consent, maintaining detailed records of communications, providing clear opt-out instructions, and staying updated on state-specific laws. Regular auditing and monitoring of messaging practices are critical for maintaining compliance.

TCPA regulations cover various types of communications, including telemarketing communications, marketing text messages, prerecorded messages, unsolicited text messages, and commercial messages. Businesses must obtain explicit consent from recipients before sending any promotional text messages or pre-recorded voice messages.

Businesses must follow proper consent guidelines, implement an opt-in message to gain consent from recipients, and comply with messaging practices like honoring quiet hours and limiting the frequency of messages. Staying compliant with TCPA regulations can help businesses avoid significant financial penalties.

Congress passes laws regulating texting/SMS messaging, the courts interpret those laws, and regulatory agencies such as the FCC and FTC enforce those laws, creating rules in order to do so. For example, the TCPA text itself does not mention SMS or text messaging because it was passed in 1991, the year before SMS messaging was invented. Subsequent court decisions and FCC rulemaking extended the TCPA’s calling regulations to text messages.

We have a number of TCPA text message compliance guides including our TCPA text marketing checklist.

Don't send messages that the consumer has not consented to receive. Send messages between 9:00 AM and 9:00 PM, recipient's time. Make sure that it is easy to opt out and honor those opt-outs immediately. Disclose that data and message rates may apply. If you are asking people to subscribe to a recurring message campaign, be clear about the frequency of the messages in that campaign.