Seventh Circuit holds TCPA cause of action does not extend to text messages

Section 227(c)(5) of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) provides a private right of action for any “person who has received more than one telephone call within any 12-month period by or on behalf of the same entity in violation” of FTC regulations related to “residential telephone subscribers’ privacy rights to avoid receiving telephone solicitations to which they object.”  Today, in Steidinger v. Blackstone Medical Services, the Seventh Circuit held that this private right of action is not available to those who have received only unwanted text messages, based on an analysis of the statutory text. The court rejected the plaintiffs’ contrary arguments and distinguished other provisions of the TCPA, which had been interpreted as referring to text messages within the term “call.”