An appeals court in Arizona this week ruled that a federal law that bans autodialing to call mobile phones also covers unsolicited text messages—even though text-messaging technology did not exist when the legislation was crafted.
The case, Rodney L. Joffe v. Acacia Mortgage Corp., was brought before a three-judge appeals court panel. The lower court found that Acacia had "violated" the TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) of 1991 by "delivering unsolicited advertisements, in the form of text messages, to Joffe"s cellular phone," and the appeals court affirmed the decision.