Last updated 2026-07-10
TL;DR
TCPA litigation is a lawsuit under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (47 U.S.C. § 227), filed when a caller or texter contacts someone without proper consent, breaks Do Not Call rules, or uses banned technology like an autodialer or prerecorded voice. Statutory damages run $500 to $1,500 per violation. One campaign can become a multimillion-dollar class settlement.
What is TCPA litigation?
TCPA litigation is a civil lawsuit brought under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, codified at 47 U.S.C. § 227. [1] Congress passed the TCPA in 1991 to stop abusive telemarketing, and it wrote in a private right of action. That means any consumer can sue you directly. No FCC, no state attorney general, no gatekeeper. That is what makes it dangerous.
Most TCPA suits follow one of three patterns. A plaintiff got an autodialed or prerecorded call or text without prior express written consent. Or a plaintiff was on the National Do Not Call Registry and you called anyway. Or a plaintiff told you to stop and you kept going. Any one of those can become a federal lawsuit the same day the violation happens.
The statute is blunt. It says it is unlawful "to make any call (other than a call made for emergency purposes or made with the prior express consent of the called party) using any automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice" to a cell phone. [1] The FCC reads that language to cover texts too. [2]
Here is what sets TCPA cases apart from most consumer statutes. You do not need actual damages to sue. The law pays out per violation, not per injury. A plaintiff who got 200 robocalls and lost zero dollars can still claim $300,000. Class actions multiply that by every consumer in the group.
How does a TCPA lawsuit actually start?
Most TCPA cases start one of two ways. A consumer documents a violation and files individually in federal district court. Or a plaintiff's attorney signs a client (often through a referral service or online intake), digs into whether a company's practices hit a large group, and files a class action.
Class actions are the threat that keeps founders up at night. A plaintiff's attorney sues on behalf of a named plaintiff and a proposed class of everyone similarly situated. If the court certifies the class, every person who got an allegedly unlawful contact becomes a potential claimant. At $500 to $1,500 per contact, a company that sent a million texts without proper consent looks at theoretical exposure of $500 million to $1.5 billion. That is never the real settlement. But it is the number your lawyer writes on the whiteboard when explaining why you should settle.
Individual suits cost less to defend and still hurt. Fighting a contested individual case can run past $50,000 in attorney fees before trial. Plenty of defendants settle individual cases for $3,000 to $15,000 just to make the legal bill go away.
Professional plaintiffs are real. Some people hand phone numbers to companies on purpose, log every contact, then sue or threaten to. Courts have mostly refused to treat that as a defense. The FCC's 2024 one-to-one consent rule was aimed in part at the consent loopholes these plaintiffs worked. [11] The 11th Circuit vacated that rule in January 2025, so the ground shifted again. [3]
What are the damages in a TCPA case?
The TCPA sets three damage tiers. [1]
| Violation type | Statutory damages per violation |
|---|---|
| Standard violation | $500 |
| Willful or knowing violation | Up to $1,500 |
| Any actual damages (if higher) | Actual damages |
The $1,500 treble figure is what plaintiffs' lawyers chase. To get it, they have to show you acted willfully or knowingly. That bar is low. Kept calling after someone asked to be added to your internal do not call list? That can qualify. Ran a campaign knowing your list held DNC numbers? That qualifies.
Class actions rarely produce $1,500-per-call verdicts at trial. The math gets so big that most defendants settle first, and settlements land at a fraction of theoretical exposure. Look at real outcomes. UnitedHealthcare paid $2.5 million to resolve TCPA allegations over calls to consumers who had not consented. Read our coverage of the [UnitedHealthcare TCPA settlement.] Cash App faced a TCPA class action with a multimillion-dollar settlement fund. See the [Cash App TCPA class action settlement for claim details.] Credit One Bank has settled multiple TCPA cases over autodialed debt collection calls. Details here: [Credit One TCPA settlement and Joseph Snyder Credit One TCPA.]
Defense costs alone can beat the settlement in smaller cases. A defendant who kills a class action at the certification stage still often spends $200,000 to $500,000 in fees getting there. The TCPA has no fee-shifting for winning defendants. You eat those costs even when you win.
What triggers a TCPA lawsuit? The most common violations
The violations that spawn the most litigation follow a clear pattern, and most of them are preventable.
Autodialed calls and texts without consent drive the biggest share. Use a platform that has the capacity to auto-dial, and under some court readings you may face exposure even when you never switched the feature on. The Supreme Court narrowed this in Facebook v. Duguid (2021), holding that an ATDS has to use a random or sequential number generator. [4] But litigation keeps churning over which systems qualify, and plaintiff's lawyers get creative arguing a given platform meets the test.
Calling or texting a reassigned number is a common trap. You got consent from person A, person A dropped the number, and person B now carries it. Person B has no clue who you are and never agreed to anything. The FCC runs a Reassigned Numbers Database so callers can check, but plenty of small teams never touch it. [5]
Ignoring opt-outs is the fastest route to a willful finding. A consumer texts STOP, you send another message, and now your own records prove the case against you. For how DNC failures turn into lawsuits, the how to stop robocalls piece walks the mechanics.
Calling cell numbers for debt collection without consent accounts for a large slice of cases. Collectors who bought old accounts often hold no valid consent for the cell numbers in those files, and courts have held that consent must travel with the account in documented form.
Violating the National DNC Registry produces both private suits and FCC enforcement. The FTC runs the registry, but the TCPA supplies the private right of action. [6] Truist Bank, Albertsons, and Safeway are among the major brands that faced TCPA class actions tied to consent and DNC issues, ending in multimillion-dollar settlements. See [Truist Bank TCPA class action settlement and Albertsons Safeway TCPA settlement.]
How have federal courts shaped TCPA litigation?
TCPA case law has swung hard both ways over the past decade, and right now it is unusually unsettled.
Facebook v. Duguid (2021) was a real shift. The Supreme Court held, 9-0, that an ATDS must use a random or sequential number generator to store or produce numbers. [4] That ruling gutted a whole category of cases where plaintiffs said any platform with a number database qualified. After Duguid, plaintiffs had to show the technology itself randomized or sequenced numbers, more than that it dialed from a list.
Plaintiffs' attorneys adapted fast. They now argue that certain dialing systems, especially ones with predictive functions, do meet the Duguid standard. Fights over what counts as an ATDS keep running in district courts across the country, with no consensus.
The 11th Circuit's January 2025 decision vacating the FCC's one-to-one consent rule opened a new gap. [3] That rule would have required consent tied to a single identified seller instead of a category of sellers, which would have killed the lead-gen model where a consumer checks one box consenting to contact from "marketing partners." The court found the FCC overstepped under the major questions doctrine. Plaintiffs' firms that had staffed up for a flood of new cases are now regrouping.
The FCC has ongoing rulemaking that may revisit consent. [2] Anyone running outbound should watch TCPA news closely, because the rules are genuinely in motion.
State courts have been busy too. Florida, Washington, and Oklahoma run their own telephone solicitation laws parallel to the TCPA, sometimes with stricter standards or different damages. A TCPA claim does not block a state law claim on the same facts.
What does the TCPA class action settlement process look like?
The first big fight after a class complaint lands is certification under Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The plaintiff has to show numerosity, commonality, typicality, and adequacy. In TCPA cases, numerosity and commonality often clear easily, because the alleged violations usually involve identical automated messages sent to a large group using the same technology and the same broken consent process.
If the class gets certified, the case becomes brutally expensive to defend. Most defendants settle at that point or before. A settlement needs court approval under Rule 23(e), which requires a finding that the deal is fair, reasonable, and adequate. Courts study the ratio of actual payout to theoretical maximum, the claims rate (often 1 to 5 percent of class members actually file), and the fee request.
Plaintiff's attorney fees in these cases are heavy. Courts usually award 25 to 33 percent of the common fund, or run a lodestar calculation. On a $10 million settlement, fees of $2.5 to $3.3 million are common, with the named plaintiff getting a service award of $5,000 to $25,000. Actual class members usually collect $25 to $150 per claim filed.
If you are a class member deciding whether to file, the Kaiser TCPA settlement shows how tight these windows get. See [Kaiser TCPA settlement claim deadline for a real example of the claims process.]
Settling is not always the right call. Some courts have denied certification in TCPA cases where individualized consent issues predominated. If your records show individual consent conversations rather than one uniform gap, that is a real argument against certification.
Can the FCC also fine you separately from private litigation?
Yes, and the two tracks run independently.
The FCC enforces the TCPA through its own administrative process. It issues Notices of Apparent Liability proposing forfeitures, runs investigations, and enters consent decrees. FCC fines are per-violation and they stack. In 2021 the FCC proposed a $225 million forfeiture against a Texas-based health insurance robocall operation, the largest in its history at the time. [7]
State attorneys general also have enforcement power under the TCPA and can sue on behalf of their residents. So a single campaign can draw FCC enforcement, state AG enforcement, and a private class action all at once.
The FTC enforces the Telemarketing Sales Rule and the National DNC Registry. It does not enforce the TCPA directly, but the violations overlap constantly. A robocall campaign that breaks the TCPA usually breaks the TSR too, and the FTC can chase that track. [6]
Regulators tend to follow headlines. Make national news for a robocall campaign and expect interest from several agencies at once. Private litigation needs none of that visibility. It can start with one complaint from one consumer.
What defenses actually work in TCPA cases?
There are real defenses. Most of them depend on documentation you have to build before the violation, not after.
Prior express written consent is the strongest defense for marketing calls and texts. [2] You need a signed agreement (electronic signatures count) that clearly authorizes contact to the specific number using an ATDS or prerecorded message. Consent buried in general terms of service has been rejected by multiple courts. It has to name the type of contact and the number.
Established business relationship is a limited defense for certain calls. It applies to calls to numbers on the National DNC Registry when the consumer bought from you within the past 18 months or made an inquiry within the past 3 months. It does not touch the autodialer and consent requirement for cell phones. [6]
Wrong number and reassigned number defenses have partial support. Post-Duguid, some courts accept that if a company had no reason to know a number was reassigned and had prior valid consent for it, exposure may be limited. But you need to show you checked the Reassigned Numbers Database or took other reasonable steps.
The cleanest class-action defense is attacking typicality and commonality. If your consent records show each class member's situation needs individual inquiry, you can fight certification. That takes good record keeping.
What does not work: pleading ignorance of the TCPA, calling the plaintiff a professional litigant, or arguing the damages are out of proportion. Courts have uniformly rejected proportionality challenges, and the damages hold up even when they bear no relation to actual harm.
How can small outbound teams avoid TCPA litigation?
Small teams are not safe. Plaintiff's attorneys often go after smaller companies precisely because they have thinner compliance and weaker records, which makes cases easier to win.
The single most important habit is getting and documenting consent before you dial. For outbound SMS marketing, prior express written consent is required. That means a clear disclosure that the consumer agrees to autodialed or prerecorded messages, the company name, and the number they agree to receive messages from. More on building compliant campaigns: [text message marketing and text messaging marketing.]
Scrub against the National DNC Registry before every campaign. The FTC charges for commercial access, and you have to scrub at least every 31 days. [6] One call to a registered number you could have caught with a current scrub is indefensible.
Keep an internal DNC list and honor opt-outs within 30 days. When someone says stop, stop. Same business day is the better practice.
Buying leads? Get indemnification language in the vendor contract and ask to see their consent records before you dial. Buying a list does not move consent to you. If the vendor handed you bad leads, you are the one dialing the consumer, and you are the one who gets sued.
For a fast review, LeadCompliant's free consent checker and compliance kit walk through the documentation your team should keep. It is not a substitute for a lawyer, but it catches the common gaps before a plaintiff's attorney does.
If your consumers sit in a state with its own solicitation law, like Florida or Washington, stack those rules on top of the TCPA. They run stricter. A TCPA lawyer who knows your state's law is worth a call before you launch anything big.
What do TCPA settlements actually cost defendants?
There is no single number, but public settlements give a realistic range.
The median TCPA class action settlement has generally landed in the $2 million to $6 million range for cases that reach resolution. That figure carries selection bias, because the largest cases settle in public while many small cases leave no record. Across documented cases, the range runs from under $100,000 for individual or small class settlements to tens of millions for the biggest ones. On the government side, Dish Network paid a $280 million penalty in 2017 to resolve federal and state Do Not Call and telemarketing claims. [8]
Defense costs stand on their own. A contested class action that reaches the certification stage costs $300,000 to $1 million or more in fees before any settlement gets paid. A Commercial General Liability policy usually excludes statutory damages, and TCPA-specific errors and omissions coverage exists but is not standard among small teams.
Carriers have started excluding TCPA claims outright from standard policies. If your company does any outbound calling or texting, read your policy. The exclusion may already be sitting there.
For examples by industry, see the Albertsons Safeway TCPA settlement and Truist Bank TCPA class action settlement breakdowns, which show both the gross fund and what individual claimants took home.
Is TCPA litigation increasing or decreasing?
The honest answer: it moves with regulatory change more than anything else.
Filing rates peaked around 2016 to 2019, when broad ATDS definitions and loose consent standards made life easy for plaintiffs. After Facebook v. Duguid in 2021 narrowed the ATDS definition, filings dropped somewhat. They never stopped. Different circuits read the post-Duguid world differently, and plaintiff's firms rebuilt their case theories to match.
The 11th Circuit's January 2025 vacatur of the one-to-one consent rule wiped out a would-be wave of cases, but the FCC will likely try revised rulemaking. [3] When new FCC rules take effect, a filing wave usually follows, because plaintiffs can point to a clearer standard the defendant broke.
What never changes is the economics. A plaintiff's attorney who finds a company that sent 500,000 texts without proper consent can file a class action, put in $50,000 to $100,000 of litigation work, and realistically reach a $3 million to $8 million settlement. That return keeps TCPA litigation alive no matter what the regulators do.
Federal TCPA filings have generally run in the low thousands per year in recent years, though pinning exact annual figures takes data from PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records), and the numbers move as case theories evolve. [9] Nobody has one clean public source for this. The closest ongoing tracking comes from WebRecon LLC's monthly report, which counts TCPA, FDCPA, and FCRA filings by month. [10]
Frequently asked questions
What is TCPA litigation?
TCPA litigation is a civil lawsuit under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. § 227, brought by a consumer or class of consumers against a caller or texter who allegedly violated the Act's rules on consent, autodialing, prerecorded messages, or Do Not Call. Statutory damages run $500 to $1,500 per violation, and class actions can involve millions of individual claims.
Who can file a TCPA lawsuit?
Any individual who received an allegedly unlawful call or text can file a TCPA lawsuit in federal or state court. The statute creates a private right of action, so no government agency has to be involved. Plaintiff's attorneys often recruit clients and file class actions for large groups. The FCC and state attorneys general can also bring separate enforcement actions.
How much can a TCPA case cost a defendant?
Statutory damages are $500 per violation and up to $1,500 for willful violations. In a class action, theoretical exposure multiplies by every class member contact. Real settlements range widely, from under $100,000 for small cases to tens of millions for large ones. Defense attorney fees alone often run $200,000 to $1 million or more before any settlement is paid.
Do I need to use a robocaller to get sued under the TCPA?
No. The TCPA also covers prerecorded voice messages, artificial voice technology, and texts sent through an automated system. Calling or texting numbers on the National DNC Registry without an exception like an established business relationship also triggers liability. Manual calls can even create exposure under state telephone solicitation laws that run parallel to the TCPA.
What is prior express written consent under the TCPA?
Prior express written consent is a signed authorization, electronic signatures included, where the consumer clearly agrees to receive autodialed or prerecorded calls and texts at a specific number. The agreement has to name the company and describe the type of contact. Consent buried in general terms of service has been rejected. It must be specific and affirmative, not a pre-checked box in most readings.
Can a class action be filed for a single marketing campaign?
Yes, and it is the standard structure. If one campaign sent the same automated message to 100,000 numbers without proper consent, a plaintiff's attorney can file a class action naming all 100,000 as potential class members. At $500 per contact, that is $50 million in theoretical exposure, which creates enormous settlement pressure even when the actual settlement is a small fraction of it.
What is the statute of limitations for a TCPA claim?
The TCPA does not specify a limitations period. Federal courts have generally applied the four-year federal catch-all period under 28 U.S.C. § 1658 to TCPA claims, though some circuits have applied shorter periods for particular theories. Check with a TCPA attorney in your jurisdiction for the current rule in your circuit.
Does having a business relationship with a customer protect me from TCPA suits?
Partially. An established business relationship gives you an exception to the National DNC Registry rules for calls, covering purchases in the past 18 months or inquiries in the past 3 months. But it does not remove the prior express written consent requirement for autodialed or prerecorded calls or texts to cell phones. Those still need explicit consent.
What happens if I call a number that has been reassigned to a new person?
You can face TCPA liability even with valid consent from the original number holder. The FCC operates a Reassigned Numbers Database that carriers update monthly, and checking it before campaigns lowers exposure. Courts have split on whether good-faith reliance on prior consent is a defense, and the FCC's safe harbor for one call after reassignment is narrow.
Does the TCPA cover text messages?
Yes. The FCC reads the TCPA to cover text messages sent through an automated system, and courts have consistently upheld that reading. Prior express written consent is required for marketing texts to cell phones. Opt-out requests by reply text have to be honored promptly. Each unconsented text is a separate violation carrying its own $500 to $1,500 exposure.
What is the FCC's role in TCPA litigation?
The FCC writes the rules that implement the TCPA and enforces it through administrative proceedings, Notices of Apparent Liability, and consent decrees. Its rulemakings directly shape what private litigants can claim. The FCC does not join private TCPA lawsuits. Its rules and interpretations get cited as the legal standard, but each lawsuit is a separate civil action between private parties.
Can I get TCPA claims against me dismissed before trial?
Yes, through motions to dismiss for failure to state a claim, motions for summary judgment, and motions opposing class certification. After Facebook v. Duguid, defendants have won by arguing the plaintiff's device or the dialing technology does not meet the ATDS definition. Consent documentation can also support summary judgment. None of these motions are cheap to win, but they are real options with real success rates.
Are there states with their own telephone solicitation laws on top of the TCPA?
Yes. Florida's Telephone Solicitation Act covers both calls and texts and carries its own damage structure. Washington, Oklahoma, and other states have similar statutes, some stricter than the TCPA. A campaign that clears TCPA review can still produce state law liability. Check the laws in every state where your consumers are located.
What should I do if I receive a TCPA demand letter or lawsuit?
Do not ignore it. A TCPA demand letter is often a settlement probe before a formal suit. Gather all consent records, calling logs, and platform documentation right away. Do not delete anything, since that can become a spoliation problem. Contact a TCPA defense attorney before responding. An early, documented response with consent evidence sometimes ends the matter faster and cheaper than contested litigation.
Sources
- U.S. Government, 47 U.S.C. § 227 (TCPA statute text), Cornell Legal Information Institute: TCPA creates a private right of action; statutory damages are $500 per violation and up to $1,500 for willful violations
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, Insurance Marketing Coalition Ltd. v. FCC (2025): 11th Circuit vacated FCC's one-to-one consent rule in January 2025 under the major questions doctrine
- U.S. Supreme Court, Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid, 592 U.S. 601 (2021): Supreme Court held 9-0 that an ATDS must use a random or sequential number generator to store or produce numbers, narrowing the TCPA's autodialer definition
- FCC, Reassigned Numbers Database program information: FCC operates a Reassigned Numbers Database that carriers update monthly to help callers avoid contacting consumers who did not give consent
- FTC, National Do Not Call Registry, business guidance: Sellers must scrub against the National DNC Registry at least every 31 days; established business relationship exception covers purchases within 18 months and inquiries within 3 months
- FTC, Press release: Dish Network to pay $280 million penalty for Do Not Call violations (2017): Dish Network paid $280 million in a 2017 federal and state enforcement settlement related to Do Not Call and telemarketing violations
- PACER, Public Access to Court Electronic Records (federal case filings): TCPA case filings in federal courts can be tracked through PACER; filing volumes have generally run in the thousands per year
- WebRecon LLC, TCPA and consumer law monthly lawsuit statistics: WebRecon publishes monthly tracking of TCPA, FDCPA, and FCRA case filings, the closest ongoing source for TCPA filing volume trends