HERE’S THE LATEST SMS HEATMAP: Cases Continue to Pour In the TCPA Split On Whether SMS Messages Are “Telephone Calls” Widens– But We Have You Covered

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Editor’s note: yes I know this is ALREADY out of date. Will update AGAIN tomorrow. 🙂

It seems pretty straightforward.

Nobody thinks of a text message as a “telephone call.”

Plainly two different things.

And obviously Congress did not mean “text message” when it said “telephone call” back in 1991 since text messages did not exist.

Anyhoo, the courts are struggling with this issue in the context of the TCPA and it matters because if SMS messages are not telephone calls then telemarketers can blast you all they want with SMS messages without consent.

People don’t want that. So courts are inventing reasons to ban SMS under the TCPA, even though that’s not what the statute says.

And no, that’s not the way it is supposed to work. But do you really want robotexts all day?

So a philosophical divide is what is leading to a split of authority– those courts who take their job as interpreters of the law seriously find SMS is NOT covered by the TCPA’s DNC provisions. Those courts that take their job as protectors of rights created by congress seriously find SMS IS covered by the TCPA’s DNC provisions.

Troutman Amin, LLP has put together this handy map to help everyone follow along. We just updated it yesterday to note new decisions in PA and in Connecticut.

Check back in frequently and we will be sure to keep everyone updated.

For now, here is the scoreboard of SMS TCPA decisions:

Text ≠ Calls:

  1. Jones v. Blackstone Med. Servs., LLC, 792 F. Supp. 3d 894 (C.D. Ill. July 21, 2025)
  2. Davis v. CVS Pharmacy, Inc., 797 F. Supp. 3d 1270 (N.D. Fla. Aug. 26, 2025)
  3. Sayed v. Naturopathica Holistic Health, 2025 WL 2997759 (M.D. Fla. Oct. 24, 2025)
  4. Radvansky v. Kendo Holdings, Inc., 3:23-cv-00214-LLM, slip op. (N.D. Ga. Feb. 12, 2026)
  5. Radvansky v. 1-800-Flowers.com, 2026 WL 456919 (N.D. Ga. Feb. 17, 2026)
  6. Lopresti v. Nouveau Essentials Marketing LLC, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 39599 (M.D. Fla. Feb. 26, 2026)
  7. Stockdale v. Skymount Prop. Grp., LLC, et al., No. 1:25 CV 1282, 2026 WL 591842 (N.D. Ohio March 3, 2026)

 

Texts = Calls

  1. Wilson v. Skopos Fin., LLC, No. 6:25-CV-00376-MC, 2025 WL 2029274 (D. Or. July 21, 2025)
  2. Watkins v. EyeBuyDirect, Inc., 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 167479 (W.D. Tex. Aug. 28, 2025)
  3. Bosley v. A Bradley Hosp. LLC, 2025 WL 2686984 (S.D. Fla. Sept. 19, 2025)
  4. Wilson v. MEDVIDI Inc., 2025 WL 2856295 (N.D. Cal. Oct. 7, 2025)
  5. Mujahid v. Newity, LLC, 2025 WL 3140725 (N.D. Ill. Nov. 10, 2025)
  6. Piet v. Office Depot, LLC, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 230981 (S.D. Fla. Nov. 24, 2025)
  7. Glasel v. Office Depot, LLC, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 231053 (S.D. Fla. Nov. 25, 2025)
  8. McGonigle v. Office Depot, LLC, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 231061 (S.D. Fla. Nov. 25, 2025)
  9. Esquivel v. Mona Lee, Inc., 2025 WL 3275607 (S.D. Cal. Nov. 24, 2025)
  10. Dilanyan v. Hugo Boss Fashions, Inc., No. 2:25-CV-05093-JLS-BFM, 2025 WL 3549868 (C.D. Cal. Dec. 3, 2025)
  11. Wilson v. Better Mortg. Corp., 2025 WL 3493815 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 5, 2025)
  12. Duron v. Kings Capital Holding LLC, 2026 LX 68851 (W.D. Tex. Jan. 13, 2026)
  13. Alvarez v. Fiesta Nissan, Inc., 2026 WL 202930 (S.D. Tex. Jan. 26, 2026)
  14. Hernandez v. Bedford Dental L.L.C., 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23208 (N.D. Ill. Feb. 4, 2026)
  15. McGonigle v. Shopperschoice.Com, LLC, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 30157 (M.D. La. Feb. 13, 2026)
  16. Howard v. Republican Nat’l Comm., 164 F.4th 1119 (9th Cir. Jan. 13, 2026)
  17. Rabbitt v. Rohrman Midwest Motors, 2026 WL 851279 (N.D. Ill. Mar. 27, 2026)
  18. Cole v. C/T Install America, LLC., (E.D. PA Mar. 23, 2026)
  19. Wilson v. Easy Spirit, LLC, No. 3:25-CV-112 (SFR) (D. Conn. Mar. 31, 2026)

Love you all. Chat soon.

Also I think a lot of you thought our keynote announcement yesterday was an April Fool’s day prank– nope!

We really will have TWO keynotes at Law Conference of Champions. Spartan Founder and CEO Joe De Sena really will kick us off with an incredible address about endurance and overcoming obstacles and then Jeff Allen– the guy who won $10MM on Beast Games– will be sitting down with me to discuss the compelling mental and psychological tools he was able to use to prevail in one of the most grueling competitions in history.

And, of course, for those interested in the current SMS landscape, Blake Landis will lead an incredible panel on the subject at Law Conference of Champions discussing the latest trends and tips for compliant SMS outreach.

Going to be an incredible show. Chat soon.

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Published by Eric "Czar" Troutman

The Czar of TCPAWorld Eric Troutman is one of the country’s prominent class action defense lawyers and is nationally recognized in Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) litigation and compliance. He has served as lead defense counsel in more than 70 national TCPA class actions and has litigated nearly a thousand individual TCPA cases in his role as national strategic litigation counsel for major banks and finance companies. He also helps industry participants build TCPA-compliant processes, policies, and systems. Eric has built a national litigation practice based upon deep experience, rigorous analysis and extraordinary responsiveness. Eric and his team feel equally at home litigating multibillion dollar telecommunications class actions in federal court as they do developing and executing national litigation strategies for institutions facing an onslaught of individual TCPA matters. They thrive in each of these roles – delivering consistently excellent results – while never losing sight of the client experience. While many firms now tout TCPA expertise, Eric has been there from the beginning. He built one of the country’s first TCPA-only defense teams and began serving as national TCPA counsel for his clients nearly a decade ago. This perspective allows him to swiftly develop the right litigation strategies for dealing with recurring problems, without wasting time on tactics that are bound to fail. Eric’s rich historical perspective and encyclopedic knowledge of the TCPA landscape also make him an invaluable resource to institutional compliance teams struggling to comply with the shifting regulatory landscape. No task is too small – or too big. Indeed, Eric and his team have helped build TCPA-compliant systems and processes for some of the largest and most complex corporate entities in the country. He commonly works with in-house compliance counsel to build and implement enterprise and business-line specific TCPA solutions, performs TCPA audits and drafts and reviews proposed TCPA policies and procedures. He and his team also have the technical expertise necessary to assist call centers seeking to develop TCPA-resistant call path architecture or to modify existing telephony and software integration to better insulate from potential TCPA exposure. Eric has built a reputation for thought leadership. An avid blogger and speaker, he has been at the forefront of the industry’s effort to push for clarity and a return to sanity for the TCPA for years. He was selected to advocate for the financial services industry on important TCPA issues before the Federal Communications Commission and co-authored the nation’s only comprehensive practice guide on TCPA defense. In his spare time, Eric leads defense teams representing banks and other financial services companies in consumer finance litigation matters. He has experience representing clients in UCC, TILA, RESPA FCRA, CCRA, CLRA, FDCPA, RFDCPA and FCCPA claims, as well as in fraud and bank operations issues.

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