What You Need to Know About Texas Mini-TCPA Law
If you’re a Texas local or want to send marketing SMS to Texas residents, you have to be mindful of the telemarketing law amendment (Chapter 302, Business & Commerce Code). This, which previously applied only to voice telephone calls, means that you may need to register your business with the Texas Secretary of State to send marketing messages.
Who Does This Apply To?
The law applies to “sellers” and “telephone solicitors” who send marketing SMS/text messages:
- TO Texas residents (regardless of where you’re located)
- FROM Texas (regardless of where your recipients are located)
What Exceptions Are There?
There are a few exceptions to this, so if your business falls under one of these categories, you may be exempt:
- Certain publicly traded companies and their subsidiaries.
- Certain financial institutions.
- Educational institutions.
- 501(c)(3) nonprofits.
- Businesses marketing the sale of food.
- Retail sellers with brick-and-mortar locations, if it has operated under the same name for the last two years, and a majority of sales occur at retail locations.
- Businesses contacting their current or former customers if that business has operated under the same business name for the last two years.
How Do I Ensure Compliance?
Navigate to the Phone numbers section inside your subaccount settings, head to the Messaging tab, and switch to SMS Compliance.
Check the box to block all bulk messages to Texas numbers or numbers with a Texas area code.
📌 Note: When this setting is enabled, all bulk SMS/MMS messages sent to recipients in Texas or from Texas area code numbers will be automatically blocked in accordance with regional regulations.
What Messages Are Allowed To Texan Recipients?
You can still have one-on-one conversations with existing customers and send essential notifications such as password resets, appointment reminders, order or shipping updates (which are covered as non-marketing service messages).
What Can Happen Upon Non-compliance?
If your business is not exempt, you don’t file a registration statement with Texas or block marketing sms sending to Texas recipients, it may result in:
- Civil penalties up to $5,000 per violation.
- Treble damages under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA).
- Attorney fees and costs awarded to successful plaintiffs.
- Increased risk of lawsuits (Texas allows “serial” private actions, meaning a single campaign could expose you to multiple lawsuits for the same conduct).
Resources
In case you need more information on the law mentioned in this article, you can use these resources: