So remember that time not long ago when Squire’s TCPA team landed that huge first in the nation result holding that TCPA claims cannot be brought in Florida state court unless the calls at issue caused actual real world harm?
Yeah, some other defendant just basically torpedoed that.
In Alvarez v Sunshine Life, the Defendant argued that an FTSA claim could not be pursued in Florida state court for lack of standing. Specifically, the defense argued that the texts at issue did not cause harm.
The Court shrugged and held as follows:
[A] legal injury arising from a violation of a statute constitutes a “concrete injury.” That is because the Legislature’s enactment of a new statute like the FTSA creates a substantive right. Thus, in Florida state court, to bring an action under the FTSA, a plaintiff need only allege that he or she received a text message from the defendant without prior express consent.
I mean… come on.
BOOOOOOOOOO. I say. BOOOOOOOO.
But yeah, we’re stuck with it. FTSA claims are actionable even if they cause no harm at all.
The FTSA just got even more dangerous folks. Take it seriously.