While the election is less than a week away, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s (TCPA) risks for political campaigns remain in full force. A resident of New York state filed a lawsuit against President Trump’s re-election campaign alleging violations of the TCPA’s prohibitions against the use of an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS). This is distinct from the TCPA class action that the President’s is currently still facing from a campaign rally last year. It’s also distinct from the TCPA complaint his 2016 campaign faced.
This new complaint—Rowan v. Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.,—alleges that the President’s campaign sent text messages via ATDS to the plaintiff without his consent. It is worth noting that the campaign’s text message operation was briefly shut down this summer by telecom carriers who believed that it was not compliant with telemarketing regulations.
While political campaigns are frequent targets for TCPA complaints, President Trump’s campaigns seem to have a particular knack for attracting them.