Last updated: July 2026 · ~5 min read · Educational, not legal advice.
The per-message math
The TCPA sets statutory damages of $500 per violating message, rising to $1,500 per message when the violation is willful or knowing. There's no need for the customer to prove they were harmed, and there is no cap. Because it's assessed per message, the exposure scales with your send:
200 texts to a non-consented list × $500 = $100,000 — before a lawyer bills an hour.
That's a single afternoon's automated campaign. Run it monthly and the numbers stop being theoretical.
What a real claim costs
Statutory damages are only part of it. A typical single TCPA claim runs about $50,000 to defend and settle. Then come the second-order costs: your Errors & Omissions premium moves at renewal, you lose staff time to discovery and depositions, and a class action — where a plaintiff's lawyer aggregates many recipients — can reach seven figures.
Who actually files these
Most TCPA claims aren't from angry customers. They're from professional plaintiffs and the firms that specialize in them, who watch for automated messages sent without provable consent or without a Do-Not-Call check. You don't get a warning shot.
How to cap your exposure
You can't make the risk zero, but you can make it defensible — which is what changes the math:
- Capture and store signed consent for every number you message.
- Screen against the Do-Not-Call registry before every send.
- Keep a tamper-evident audit trail so you can produce proof in seconds.
- Register your messaging traffic (A2P 10DLC) and cap volume per customer.
Do that and a $50,000 exposure becomes a documented "we did the work" — the difference between a settlement and a dismissal. A 4-week hardening puts all of it in place, and the free scan shows where you stand today.
Educational and general in nature; not legal advice. Consult your attorney about your specific situation.
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