TCPA Text Lawsuits: Does A Single Text Message Confer TCPA Standing?

On March 13, 2023, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to rehear the issue of whether a single unsolicited text message confers standing under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act ("TCPA"). This is an important issue for all TCPA text message lawsuit defendants.

As background, Plaintiffs filed this class action lawsuit in the Southern District of Alabama alleging that GoDaddy.com. LLC ("GoDaddy") violated the TCPA by placing calls and sending text messages using an automated telephone dialing system without recipient consent. After the parties reached agreement on the terms of a settlement, the parties moved for preliminary approval of the TCPA text class action settlement. Briefing was then ordered by the Court as to whether Salcedo v. Hanna precluded approval of the class. The Salcedo decision held that the receipt of a single unwanted text message was not a concrete injury and, thus, did not confer standing to sue under the TCPA. The District Court in