Political contribution machine WinRed escaped potential TCPA trouble in Michigan his week with a court determining it is not responsible for illegal messages sent by political campaigns– even those seemingly “Powered By WinRed.”
In Dobronski v. WinRed, Inc. 2026 WL 2168723 (E.D. Mich. July 28, 2026) repeat-litigator Dobronski argued he had received over 80 illegal texts from political campaigns from the WinRed platform.
WinRed moved for sumamary judgment arguing the real number was only something like 30 texts but also that it was not responsible for the texts at issue.
According to WinRed it is not a tet message platform at all– it is merely a backend payment processor: “[A]s Defendants noted, there is no evidence that WinRed offers a calling platform service; it only provides a payment platform.” That being the case the Court refused to analyze the SMS at issue under the Lucas test–which looks at the platform’s involvement in the initiation of the messages.
Instead the Court focused on traditional theories of vicarious liability. But since none of the texts were sent “on behalf of” WinRed and were merely “powered by” WinRed–whatever that means– there was no basis to hold WinRed liable for the texts.
Interestingly, Dobronski apparently deposed WinRed CEO Ryan Lyk–I wonder what that was like– and tried to use some of his testimony to suggest WinRed knew its users were sending illegal political texts but the Court found the portion of Lyk’s testimony Dobronski submitted didn’t amount to a hill of beans.
At bottom there as nothing in the record to link WinRed to the illegal conduct at issue so the Court granted WinRed’s summary judgment motion.
And since I know you’re all curious, yes the Judge at issue was appointed by a Republican president– but it was W. not Trump. So… make of that what you will.
Never a dull moment in TCPAWorld.
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