Last month, the Eleventh Circuit issued a ruling in Drazen v. Pinto that overturned a lower court decision and set a precedent that the receipt of a single, unwanted text message constitutes sufficient harm to confer Article III standing. This is the latest twist in the long journey of this class action and represents another jurisdictional claim staked on Article III standing in TCPA cases.

The case stretches back to a 2019 class action that the plaintiff filed against GoDaddy. The district court initially ruled that one of the named class members lacked Article III standing due to only receiving a single text message.

The case law on this particular subject is complex and often contradictory from one jurisdiction to another. Previously, the precedent in the Eleventh Circuit had been the one set by Salcedo v. Hanna that the receipt of a single text message is insufficient harm to confer Article III standing. The Drazen decision reverses that precedent.

The court writes that “[a] plaintiff who receives an unwanted, illegal text message suffers a concrete injury” because it “reflect[s] an intrusion into the peace and quiet in a realm that is private and personal.” This change brings the Eleventh Circuit into harmony with seven other circuits that have found that the receipt of single text message can confer standing.