On top of the Federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), Washington has a robocall law that provides many additional protections to consumers receiving annoying text messages.
Unlike the TCPA, Washington’s robocall law, the Commercial Electronic Mail Act (“CEMA”), prohibits advertising text messages whether or not they were sent by an auto-dialer or robodialer, and holds companies liable if they “initiate or assist in the transmission” of advertising text messages.
The CEMA includes the following unique protections:
No person conducting business in the state may initiate or assist in the transmission of an electronic commercial text message to a telephone number assigned to a Washington resident for cellular telephone or pager service that is equipped with short message capability or any similar capability allowing the transmission of text messages.
It is a violation of this chapter to solicit, request, or take any action to induce a person to provide personally identifying information by means of a web page, electronic mail message, or otherwise using the internet by representing oneself, either directly or by implication, to be another person, without the authority or approval of such other person.
RCW 19.190.060(1); RCW 19.190.080(1).
On the other hand:
(1) It is not a violation of RCW 19.190.060 if: (a) The commercial electronic text message is transmitted at the direction of a person offering cellular telephone or pager service to the person’s existing subscriber at no cost to the subscriber unless the subscriber has indicated that he or she is not willing to receive further commercial text messages from the person; or (b) The unsolicited commercial electronic text message is transmitted by a person to a subscriber and the subscriber has clearly and affirmatively consented in advance to receive these text messages.
RCW 19.190.070 (1).
In other words, delivering sales or advertising text messages is prohibited under Washington law unless the business has the consent of the person receiving those messages, and any business that delivers or causes another to deliver those messages is potentially in violation of CEMA.
Like the TCPA, CEMA provides for damages of up to $500 per violation, RCW 19.190.090(1).
If you live in Washington, and believe you may have received advertising or telemarketing text messages without your consent, do not hesitate to contact us at info@pkglegal.com or at (561) 726-8444 for a free evaluation of your claim.
In the meantime, be sure to save and separately screenshot each of the text messages at issue—they will be very important to evaluating your potential case.