Text Messages Are NOT Prerecorded Voice Messages

On August 8, 2023, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a major win for both Telephone Consumer Protection Act ("TCPA") defendants and the industry at large. In Trim v. Reward Zone USA LLC, the Plaintiff set forth the novel argument that the text messages she received violated the prerecorded voice restrictions contained in the TCPA. TCPA plaintiffs have demonstrated increased creativity in their TCPA cases following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid. Readers will recall that in Facebook, the Supreme Court narrowed the TCPA's definition of what constitutes an automatic telephone dialing system ("ATDS"). In Trim, Plaintiff set her sights on the last clause of 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1)(A), which prohibits calls made using "an artificial or prerecorded voice."