Twitter Fails to Stop $5M TCPA Class Action Lawsuit

Twitter’s motion to dismiss a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) class action lawsuit was recently denied.

Primary plaintiff Beverly N. presented a satisfactory argument for the text message spam lawsuit to continue in spite of Twitter’s protest. This TCPA class action lawsuit may cost Twitter $5 million.

Beverly alleged in her text message spam class action lawsuit that Twitter used an automatic telephone dialing system, or robocall system, in order to send mass text messages to individuals who did not give their prior consent. This is a potential TCPA violation.

The text message recipients claimed their numbers were “recycled numbers”: numbers which previously belonged to people who gave their consent to Twitter. Others claimed they originally consented to Twitter text messages but later withdrew their consent, “only to be ignored by Twitter,” according to the TCPA class action lawsuit.

The primary argument in the motion to dismiss the TCPA class action lawsuit is whether Twitter used an automatic telephone dialing system to contact the putative Class or not.

The TCPA defines an automatic telephone dialing system as “equipment which has the capacity … to store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator … and to dial such numbers.” A text message counts as a “call” and falls under TCPA protection.

The plaintiff argued that Twitter’s equipment fit this definition because “it ‘stores’ telephone numbers and then ‘dials’ those numbers (by sending text messages to them) without human intervention,” according to the Twitter TCPA class action lawsuit.

Twitter argued that their equipment did not fit the definition of automatic telephone dialing system because they do not have the ability to generate numbers using a random or sequential number generator. While they can store and dial numbers from a database, they do not come up with the numbers out of thin air.

However, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) created the statute in question to include equipment that called people without human intervention, “regardless of whether the numbers called are randomly or sequentially generated or come from calling lists.” This includes equipment that could produce numbers and dial if “paired with certain software,” according to the text spam class action lawsuit.

While this definition has been argued against in the past, Twitter did not fight the statute interpretation. Instead, Twitter argued that the allegation that their equipment could have the capacity to generate numbers was false.

It claimed that its equipment would need “to be dramatically reconfigured” in order to meet the definition. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria found Twitter’s argument to be insufficient in this stage and dismissed the motion to dismiss the TCPA Twitter class action lawsuit.

Twitter also attempted to argue that Beverly and the other plaintiffs who possess recycled phone numbers did not have valid claims under the TCPA. Twitter said that the person who gave the original consent should be considered the called party, not the people who received the texts. Judge Chhabria found this argument to be invalid as well.

The Twitter TCPA class action lawsuit seeks $500 for each TCPA violation in addition to an award of statutory damages, injunctive relief, costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees.

The Twitter TCPA Violation Class Action Lawsuit is Case No. 12-cv-02843, in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California.

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If you were contacted on your cell phone by a company via an unsolicited text message (text spam) or prerecorded voice message (robocall), you may be eligible for compensation under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

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