Chicago court rules TCPA applies to SMS

According to a federal district court in Chicago the SMS messages that are sent to consumers without their consent could violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

The decision reminds of the conclusions in the previous Ninth Circuit opinion and underscores the importance of getting express consent from consumers before sending SMS messages.

According to Gonzalo E. Mon, attorney at Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, Washington, mobile marketers would be well-advised to get express consent before sending text messages to consumers. Without the consent of the consumer, the marketers are likely to face complains, lawsuits and significant settlement costs.

In the last few years there has been a considerable rise in the number of people filing lawsuits against companies that failed to get consent from consumers before sending them text messages.

The primary law in the US which is governing the conduct of telephone solicitations is TCPA and it restricts the use of automatic dialing systems, artificial or prerecorded voice messages SMS text messages received by mobile phones and the use of fax machines to send unsolicited advertisements.