What are TCPA damages per text message?
The same as a call: $500 per text, and up to $1,500 per text if willful or knowing. A text message is a call under the TCPA, and each message counts separately.
A text message is a "call" for TCPA purposes, and the damages are identical: $500 per message under 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(3), and up to $1,500 per message if the court finds the violation willful or knowing. The FCC has treated texts as calls since 2003 and the courts follow that reading. Each message is its own violation, so a campaign that sent five texts to one number before a STOP, and two after, has seven violations, and the last two are the ones most easily trebled.
Why text claims add up fast
Text campaigns are cheap to run and reach numbers in bulk, so the count per recipient is often higher than for calls. Platforms keep precise logs, which means the recipient's screenshots and the sender's export usually agree on the count. And marketing texts to a cell phone sent using an automated system need prior express written consent under 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(a)(2), which many lists cannot produce per number. See what counts as written consent.
The Florida add-on
For a recipient in Florida, the Florida Telephone Solicitation Act, Fla. Stat. § 501.059, treats text messages as telephonic sales calls and carries its own $500 to $1,500 per message. Since a 2023 amendment, a claim for texts under the Florida act requires the recipient to have replied STOP and the sender to have continued for fifteen days afterwards. Messages sent after that window are exposed under both statutes.
Worked example
Six marketing texts to one Florida cell phone from a purchased list, no written consent, three sent after a STOP reply. Federal: six violations, $3,000 at the base figure, and the three post-STOP messages are candidates for $1,500 each. State: the post-STOP messages, if sent after the fifteen-day window, add $500 to $1,500 each. The demand letter will typically ask for less than that total. The negotiation is about the count, not the per-message figure.
People also ask
Does a two-part text count as two violations?
A message delivered as several segments is generally treated as one message. Separate messages on separate occasions are separate violations.
Is a text to a landline a violation?
Landlines rarely receive texts. The autodialer and prerecorded-voice rule in § 227(b) is aimed at cell phones; the Do Not Call rule in § 227(c) covers residential numbers on the registry, including cell phones.
What about a text sent after someone replied STOP?
That is the clearest knowing violation there is. It also fails the FCC’s revocation rule and, in Florida, the fifteen-day rule under Fla. Stat. § 501.059.