Corey Day and Tom Woods Look at Ways Businesses Can Avoid Violating Federal Law When Texting Customers

In a recent article in Artisan Spirit Magazine, litigators Corey Day and Thomas Woods discuss the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, or TCPA, which, itself and through regulations passed by the Federal Communications Commission, dictates when, and how, a business can text or call solicitations to its customers.

At its most basic, the TCPA requires a business to have explicit permission from a customer or potential customer before texting or calling him or her and for it to cease if the permission is revoked. The TCPA has stiff penalties for violators, which can add up quickly—$500 for each unintentional violation and three times that amount for each intentional violation.

Day and Woods look at a few situations in which a business that doesn’t call or text customers might run afoul of the TCPA. For example, it is acceptable for a business that takes reservations to text customers when their table/tour/etc. is ready—using numbers provided specifically for that use—but not for it to use those numbers without express written consent to text the customers a coupon or something else not related to their reservations.

Before a vendor commences texting or calling its customers, Day and Woods recommend a thorough review of the current state of the law and conclude, “… when in doubt, talk it out … with an attorney.”

Read the full article here.