STALEMATE: Another Court Finds Texts Are Calls– But The Map Hasn’t Changed in A While

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As anyone following TCPAWorld knows there is a huge split right now as to whether consumers can sue businesses for unwanted text messages under the TCPA’s DNC provisions.

Numerous courts have gone in both directions.

We just reported yesterday that a court in W.D. Tex. had held texts are calls for TCPA DNC purposes. And today we see a federal court in Pennsylvania holding the same– but there is a larger story here. We’ll get to that in a second.

First in Pero v. Brown- Daub Chevrolet, 2026 WL 1747214 (E.D. Pa. June 17, 2026) a consumer allegedly received 6 unwanted text messages from Brown-Daub after she had opted out of SMS. Her number was on the national DNC list at the time. Plaintiff sued the dealership in a TCPA class action seeking to represent anyone who received an SMS message in violation of the DNC rules.

The dealership moved to dismiss arguing SMS aren’t calls under the TCPA- but the court disagreed. Finding that the “overwhelming” majority of courts have held SMS messages do equal calls the Pero court arrived at that conclusion as well without too much independent analysis.

So putting on my best ChatGPT impressions– here’s what everyone’s missing.

Yes the “SMS are calls” group have more decisions but they are all coming out of the same jurisdictions. As the map shows there hasn’t been a new territory falling into one cap or another– this map is from April and it is still static.

Essentially we are in a stalemate right now– the courts that have found SMS are calls keep doing so. But the courts that have already found SMS are not calls also keep doing so.

So this is more of a true split situation than a “majority rule” situation (although there are slightly more jurisdictions in the “SMS are calls” camp it is definitely NOT an overwhelming majority.

We’ll keep an eye on all of this.

If you have questions Troutman Amin, LLP lawyers have answers. Give us a buzz!

Much love my friends.

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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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