Judge: Law Prohibiting Text Message Spam Not Unconstitutional

Clearing the way for a potential class-action lawsuit regarding wireless spam, a judge has rejected two marketing companies' argument that a federal law banning text message spam is unconstitutional.

US District Court Judge Claudia Wilken in Seattle ruled last week that the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which has been interpreted to require that companies obtain users' "prior express consent" before sending them text ads, is not too vague to be enforced. The companies had argued that the federal law did not adequately define the term prior express consent. But Wilken ruled that previous court decisions and rulings by the Federal Communications Commission provided "ample guidance" about how to determine whether users had given marketers permission to send text ads. The decision means that Illinois resident Christopher Kramer can move forward with his lawsuit against mobile ad company B2Mobile and lead-generation company LeadClick for allegedly sending ads to his cell phone.