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On July 14, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that text messages are not “telephone calls” covered by the private right of action in Section 227(c)(5) of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The court affirmed the dismissal of a consolidated class action alleging that a medical services provider sent consumers marketing texts and calls after they opted out or registered their numbers on the National Do-Not-Call Registry.
Section 227(c)(5) permits a consumer who receives more than one telephone call within a 12-month period in violation of Federal Communications Commission regulations to seek injunctive relief and statutory damages. The Seventh Circuit concluded that the provision does not authorize claims based on unwanted texts. Specifically, the court:
- Relied on the statute’s original meaning. The court determined that the ordinary meaning of “telephone call” when Congress enacted the TCPA in 1991 referred to sound-based communications and did not encompass text messages.
- Distinguished calls from messages. Other provisions define “telephone solicitation” as a telephone call or message, while Section 227(c)(5) refers only to telephone calls. The court reasoned that Congress’s use of different terms supported a narrower private right of action.
- Declined to follow the FCC’s broader interpretation. Although the FCC has extended National Do-Not-Call Registry protections to text messages, the court explained that those regulations were issued under provisions addressing “telephone solicitations,” not the narrower language in Section 227(c)(5).
The court also distinguished a Ninth Circuit’s January 2026 decision holding the opposite. The Ninth Circuit concluded that a text can qualify as a “call,” but it interpreted Section 227(b), which contains different language and a broader private right of action. Accordingly, the decisions create tension over how the TCPA treats text messages, but do not squarely interpret the same statutory provision.
Putting It Into Practice: The decision narrows one avenue of TCPA class action exposure for businesses sending marketing texts in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, but its impact is limited. The Seventh Circuit addressed only the private right of action under Section 227(c)(5), and its reasoning does not eliminate potential claims under Section 227(b), state telemarketing statutes, or other provisions governing text-message campaigns. Given the split between the Seventh and Ninth Circuit, we will monitor to see if the Supreme Court tries to resolve the issue.
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