9th Circuit Says Meta Birthday Texts Didn't Violate TCPA

Meta didn't violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act when it sent consumers unsolicited birthday text messages because it didn't use a TCPA-defined autodialer that randomly or sequentially generated the phone numbers in question, said a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opinion Wednesday (docket 21-16785) affirming a lower court’s dismissal with prejudice of plaintiff Colin Brickman’s class action. Brickman argued Meta used a random or sequential number generator (RSNG) to determine the order in which the phone numbers were stored and dialed, an activity he said implicates the TCPA, said the court. He didn't argue that the RSNG actually generated the consumers’ phone numbers, which Meta got directly from Facebook customers. Meta successfully argued in the district court and again in the 9th Circuit that the TCPA-defined RSNG must actually generate the phone numbers in the first instance.