In response to the news that two U.S. Senators have introduced legislation to stop unsolicited text messaging, it might be helpful to clarify whether unsolicited commercial texting is already illegal.

In 2004, the Federal Communications Commission released its Rules and Regulations Implementing the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003. The primary purpose of the rules governs commercial email sent to a mobile user with an Internet domain name. (eg; anything with an @’example’.com email address.)   However, the FCC clarified in this rulemaking that short message service/text messaging via an “automatic telephone dialing system” is prohibited under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which includes all phone numbers registered with the FTC Do Not Call Registry.

To be clear, ‘automatic telephone dialing systems’ are defined as “equipment which has the capacity (A) to store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator; and (B) to dial such numbers.”

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