Its pretty tough for a defendant to lose ATDS cases these days–especially in the 9th circuit where the law requires random creation of a phone number for an ATDS allegation to have merit.
Indeed, on Deserve to Win Ep. 51 I joked that I couldn’t lose an ATDS argument if I tried.
Yet two #BigLaw firms have recently managed to do just that– and it’s absurd.
If you read TCPAWorld you already know about the #BigLaw firm that lost an ATDS case against a guy with no lawyer in N.D. Tex. recently.
Well in Vandersloot v. Pro Source Lending Group, 2026 WL 2858619 (D. Id. Sept. 23, 2026) another #biglaw firm just lost an ATDS claim in suit arising out of allegedly unsolicited SMS messages.
The court found the allegations of repetitive generic messages were enough to survive a pleadings stage challenge:
He has alleged, among other things, that 22 identified text messages were sent using an ATDS; that the messages were repetitive and substantially similar; that he had never been Defendant’s customer and had not requested or consented to the communications; that Defendant contacted him at multiple telephone numbers; and that other consumers posted complaints on the internet regarding Defendant’s “robotexts.” Those allegations, taken together and viewed in Plaintiff’s favor, permit a reasonable inference that Defendant used an ATDS as that term is defined by the TCPA.
Interestingly the court focused on online complaints about the defendant complaining of robotext usage to support an inference an ATDS was used– don’t recall seeing a court do that before so that is quite unusual.
The court also allowed the Plaintiff’s claim for treble damages to proceed finding enough had been alleged to possibly hold the defendant liable for a knowing or willful violation of the TCPA.
Not good.
I say again, don’t hire #biglaw to defend you in TCPA suits folks. It never seems to go well.
What did go well was Deserve to Win Ep. 51 with GenAI CEO Tom Ryan of Bigly Sales. This is the one where we break down the FCC’s critical new rulings. Definitely worth a watch!
Chat soon.
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