Over the past couple a years TCPAWorld has been hammered with a huge number of quiet hours TCPA claims filed across the nation.
The claims generally allege receipt of marketing calls prior to 8 am or after 9 pm at the called party’s location. However the allegations of the Complaint often mask a critical fact—that the consumer actually consented to calls in the first place.
The issue in these cases generally boils down to a single legal issue—does consent to be contacted equate to permission to be contacted during quiet hours?
Despite the huge number of these cases that have been recently filed an answer to this specific question has been surprisingly absent—until yesterday!
In King v. Bon Charge, 2026 WL 1171386 (D. De April 30, 2026) the court held squarely and directly quiet hours claims cannot be brought by a consumer who has provided their number voluntarily to the caller.
In the King court’s view a quiet hour’s claim must be linked to a solicitation—i.e. a non-consented contact. And anytime a consumer provides their phone number they are inviting such contact.
Breaking down the regulations, the King court determined “the quiet-hours provision [of the TCPA regs] does not require a person’s “prior express invitation or permission” to be “evidenced by a signed, written agreement” that meets certain requirements.” Instead, King “knowingly release[ed]” her phone number to Bon Charge by sending it a message to “subscribe” to marketing texts and get a “15 percent off coupon.”
That “knowing release” of the number is all that was required to neutralize the quiet hours claim: the court found King’s prior express invitation or permission was “apparent” so the texts Bon Charge sent were not “telephone solicitation[s],” and the quiet-hours provision does not apply.
Very straightforward and well-reasoned ruling. But just as with the issue of whether SMS messages are calls we expect courts will split on this issue.
We will keep an eye on it.
Not next week though because we will all be busy at the SOLD OUT Law Conference of Champions IV! Can’t wait to see you there! And, of course, even with this favorable reasoning, you must still be wary of STATE call-time restrictions—I’ll be addressing that at LCOC this year at my can’t-miss compliance panel.
Xoxo
Queenie
