Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

On October 30, 2012, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California ruled that an opt-out confirmation text sent by Citibank (South Dakota), N.A. (“Citibank”) did not violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”). Under a “common sense” interpretation, the court determined that Citibank’s opt-out text does not demonstrate the type of invasion of privacy the TCPA seeks to prevent.

The TCPA is a federal privacy law that imposes restrictions on telephone solicitations, including telemarketing calls and text messages. Courts have disagreed on whether text messages sent to consumers to confirm that the sender will stop sending text messages violate the statute. In this case, the plaintiff provided his cell phone number to Citibank in an online credit card application. Two days later, Citibank sent the consumer a text message regarding his application that offered an opportunity to opt out by replying “STOP,” which the plaintiff did. Citibank then sent a text message confirming that the plaintiff would no longer receive text messages from Citibank.

Observing that the TCPA seeks to target “the proliferation of intrusive, nuisance calls,” the court found that Citibank’s concise opt-out confirmation text (which was a single text message sent to a phone number the plaintiff voluntarily provided to Citibank) was not the type of practice contemplated by the statute, and granted Citibank’s motion for summary judgment.

Read our previous coverage of class action suits alleging violations of the TCPA.