With Video, Chamber of Commerce Dives Into Crowded Pool of TCPA Reform Advocates

The U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, a group affiliated with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, late last week posted a video on YouTube describing the trouble the Los Angeles Lakers have had with a TCPA class action lawsuit.

The basketball team asked fans attending a game in the Lakers’ home arena to text their votes for which songs to feature during halftime. After the promotion, the team sent “thank you” text messages to fans that participated.

A fan filed a class action lawsuit claiming violations of the TCPA for the thank you texts.

The Institute for Legal Reform launched the video under its Faces of Lawsuit Abuse brand and domain.

Watch the video below:

The group calls for TCPA reform, noting that the 1991 law has not been effectively updated to reflect current technology.

“The problems that have arisen since it was passed is that technology has changed so significantly that companies that are making calls that are not random or sequential telemarketing are now getting pulled into lawsuits at an increasing rate,” said Becca Wahlquist, a partner in the law firm of Snell & Willmer, and an expert in TCPA litigation. “When the TCPA was created in 1991 there were no text messages, there weren’t smart phones, there weren’t these kinds of technologies, and so companies who are using these sorts of technologies are finding themselves subject to lawsuits for a statute they may not have really known could apply to them.”