TCPA Defendant Stands by Claim That Its Texts Weren’t Telemarketing
Plaintiff Courtney Hill’s Oct. 10 opposition (see 2310110042) “fails to rebut” InvestorPlace Media’s showing that her first amended Telephone Consumer Protection Act complaint should be dismissed with prejudice, said InvestorPlace’s reply Tuesday (docket 5:23-cv-00111) in U.S. District Court for Western…
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North Carolina in Statesville in support of its motion to dismiss. Hill’s complaint fails to state a claim because it doesn’t plead facts “sufficient to plausibly allege” that the text messages she allegedly received constitute “telemarketing” within the meaning of the “governing regulation,” it said. Hill doesn’t dispute that the texts she allegedly received don’t “on their face contain any content” that’s designed to promote the purchase or rental of goods or services, “as is required to state a claim under the relevant rule,” said the reply. Rather than arguing that the text messages themselves constitute telemarketing, Hill takes the position that any message directing the recipient to any portion of a business’ website constitutes telemarketing, “so long as that business sells goods or services somewhere on its website,” it said. But alleging InvestorPlace provided links to informational content on its website isn’t sufficient to plausibly allege the messages were sent for telemarketing purposes, it said. Multiple courts have rejected “such an expansive reading of the regulation,” and “for good reason,” it said.