WHAT IF?: What If Media Group Sued in TCPA Class Action– But Have they Figured Out How To Send CNAM With SMS?

So What If Media Group has made some negative TCPA headlines lately– but a new TCPA class action against the company may show that it is actually doing one thing really well.

Here’s the story.

A consumer named Scott Peck claims he received unwanted SMS messages from Super7Sweeps– a What if media Group brand. Scott claims he responded “stop” but the texts kept coming.

Scott sued in federal court in New Jersey alleging violations of the TCPA’s DNC and Internal DNC rules– and New Jersey is one of the jurisdictions that recognizes texts are calls for DNC purposes so the suit may have merit.

Scott wants to represent two classes of similar individuals:

INTERNAL DO NOT CALL CLASS: All persons within the
United States who, within the four years prior to the filing of this
action, (1) received more than one text message within any 12-
month period, (2) regarding Defendant’s goods, products or
services, (3) to said person’s residential cellular telephone number,
(4) after making a request to Defendant to not receive future calls
or communications by replying with a “stop” or similar opt-out
instruction in response to Defendant’s text message(s).

DNC Class: All persons in the United States who, within the
four years prior to the filing of this action through the date of
class certification, (1) were sent more than one text message
within any 12-month period; (2) where the person’s telephone
number had been listed on the National Do Not Call Registry
for at least thirty days; (3) regarding Defendant’s goods,
products or services; (4) to said person’s residential cellular
telephone number; (5) after making a request to Defendant to
not receive further calls or communications by replying with a
“stop” or similar opt-out instruction in response to
Defendant’s text message(s)

Ok that’s all fine, but what I want to focus on is this picture here:

Am I crazy or is that CNAM being passed with SMS?

As TCPAWorld readers know, one of the biggest trends out there right now are TCPA suits claiming marketing messages are being sent without Caller ID information– which may or may not be a violation of the TCPA. But the fact that the law is unclear maekes it very important for compliant companies to try to find a way to pass CNAM with their SMS.

One problem– most carriers don’t have the ability to pass along CNAM with SMS.

So maybe What If is using RCS here. Or maybe they know something very special.

Let’s see if they want to come on the podcast to discuss.

Speaking of which, have you caught the new format? Good stuff!

Chat soon.