Federal Courts Split Over TCPA Do-Not-Call Claims as Rulings Target Texts, Cell Phones and Private Suits

A federal court in Florida has ruled that there is no private cause of action for do-not-call claims under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and attorney Eric Troutman of Troutman Amin argues in an October 9, 2026 commentary that the ruling is part of a broader narrowing of TCPA exposure. The Florida court reasoned that the statute's private-suit provision refers to FCC rules, but that Congress directed the FCC to issue do-not-call implementing rules by 1992, and the Commission did not do so until 2003. Troutman notes that hundreds of decisions have reached the opposite conclusion. Narrower rulings are also piling up. In Nickson v. TrueAccord, a Maryland court dismissed a DNC count on October 5, 2026, after the plaintiff did not oppose the motion. In Anthony v. Brian Marketing Group, a federal court refused a default judgment on the ground that cell phones are not "residential" lines, a reading that would confine DNC suits to landline calls if other courts adopt it. The most significant appellate ruling came in July 2026, when the Seventh Circuit held in Steidinger v. Blackstone Medical Services that Section 227(c)(5) permits suits over calls but not text messages, because a text is not a "telephone call." According to Kirkland & Ellis's analysis, that ruling eliminates one of the most heavily used vehicles for TCPA class litigation in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. The shift traces to the Supreme Court's June 2025 decision in McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson, which held that district courts are not bound to defer to FCC interpretations of the TCPA. Filing data already reflect the slowdown: TCPA class actions fell 11.7% year over year in August 2026, to 143 from 162, the third straight monthly decline.