Patrick Semansky/AP
US Supreme Court ruled in favor of Facebook on Thursday in a case about what counts as an “automatic telephone dialing system” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
The Supreme Court said in the ruling that Facebook’s text alerts on suspicious logins do not qualify as robocalls, and shot down a proposed class action lawsuit accusing the social media company of violating the 1991 act that was put in place in an attempt to curb telemarketing calls.
Billions of robocalls hit American cell phones every month, and the ruling in favor of Facebook can be seen as a major win for telemarketers.
The lawsuit was filed 2015 in California federal court by Noah Duguid, a Montana resident who accused Facebook of violating the TCPA’s restriction on using an automatic telephone dialing system to send him unsolicited text messages, despite not having a Facebook account.
The decision from the Supreme Court on Thursday was unanimous, and authored by Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.