One "Chirp, Buzz, Or Blink" Is Not Enough To Sue Under The TCPA

A recent decision by the Eleventh Circuit will make it more difficult for plaintiffs to establish standing to sue under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). In Salcedo v. Hanna, et al., Case No. 17-14077, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 25967 (11th Cir. Aug. 28, 2019), the Eleventh Circuit ruled that a single text message did not cause sufficient harm to sue in federal court. As a result, "single text message" TCPA cases may be a thing of the past, at least in the federal courts across the three States in the Eleventh Circuit (Florida, Georgia, and Alabama). However, given conflict with a ruling by the Ninth Circuit, the issue may now be ripe for decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The plaintiff, John Salcedo, received a single automated text message from his former attorney offering a ten percent discount on legal services. Salcedo then filed a putative class action seeking to represent a class of individuals who received similar unsolicited text messages from the