Text message class actions can look small per message and large in total. According to plaintiff-side law firms, statutory damages under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) run $500 to $1,500 per illegal text. A program that sends millions of messages can reach a very large number on paper from a single gap, such as a consent record that doesn't hold up or an opt-out that never reached the suppression list. Understanding TCPA damages per text message helps operations and compliance leads decide where to look first.
This post explains how the per-message math works, what recent settlements actually show, and which controls to audit. It is also candid about what the public record does not tell us.
Key takeaways
- Plaintiff-side law firms say TCPA statutory damages are $500 to $1,500 per illegal text, and that no proof of actual harm is needed. These are law-firm claims, not a reading of the statute.
- Settlements pay far less per message than that range. A $290 or $75 per-text figure is a claim-dependent maximum, not the legal measure of damages.
- Two recent settlements involved texts sent after people replied STOP, so opt-out handling is a core risk area.
- Settlement size depends heavily on class size. A small class produces a small fund even when the per-text number looks large.
- Courts scrutinize class settlements, so a settlement amount is not a reliable proxy for what a case could have been worth.
How per-message damages work
The TCPA is the federal law that restricts marketing calls and texts to people who haven't consented, are on the Do Not Call Registry, or have opted out. (Do Not Call Registry is the national list consumers join to stop telemarketing.)
According to a plaintiff-side blog on spam text lawsuits (opens in a new tab), statutory damages are $500 to $1,500 per illegal text. A TCPA plaintiff firm (opens in a new tab) adds that damages require no proof of actual harm, that in most cases there is no cap on the total, and that class treatment multiplies exposure. The same firm says settlements routinely reach eight and nine figures.
Treat those statements carefully. They come from law-firm marketing pages written to attract plaintiffs, not from the statute or a court opinion. The figures are widely repeated, but they have not been verified here against the statutory text, and how courts count a "per message" violation is an open question. Defendants also sometimes argue that constitutional limits apply to very large totals, according to the same firm.
The practical point stands either way. When damages attach to each message rather than to each person, volume becomes the multiplier. A program that sends a few thousand non-compliant texts has a very different risk profile than one that sends millions.
What the SeeEyeWear settlement shows
A recent case gives a concrete look at the per-text math, with an important caveat: it is a small settlement, not a seven- or eight-figure one.
According to coverage from OpenClassActions (opens in a new tab), the lawsuit (Kaya v. See Inc., now in Miami-Dade County, Florida) alleges that SeeEyeWear kept texting people after they replied STOP and sent repeat texts to numbers on the Do Not Call Registry. SeeEyeWear denies wrongdoing, and the court has not decided who is right. The two classes cover texts sent between August 14, 2021 and August 14, 2025:
- Do Not Call Registry Class: people sent more than one marketing text in 12 months while their number had been on the Registry for 30 or more days.
- STOP Class: people sent more than one text in 12 months to a cell number after opting out.
The headline figure is that each class member who files a valid claim can receive up to $290 per qualifying text. But the details matter:
- Only one claim is allowed per person, and it covers all of that person's texts.
- $290 is a maximum, not a guaranteed payout.
- The total fund is up to $275,210, and it also pays attorneys' fees (class counsel is requesting $82,500), administration costs capped at $10,000, and a service award of up to $5,000 for the named plaintiff.
- If approved claims plus those costs exceed the fund, every payment is cut by the same proportion.
- The court's preliminary approval order puts the two classes at about 227 people combined.
The final approval hearing is set for November 12, 2026, and no payments are made until final approval and the end of any appeals.
The lesson is about mechanics, not scale. A per-text figure of $290 sounds large, but a class of about 227 people and a fund under $300,000 keep the total modest. The same structure with a class of tens of thousands would look very different. Class size, not just the per-text number, drives the outcome.
A larger comparison: Kaiser
Reporting on a Kaiser Foundation Health Plan settlement (opens in a new tab) shows how fund size scales. Kaiser agreed to a $10.5 million class settlement over marketing texts sent to people who had already opted out. Qualified claimants can receive up to $75 per text, reduced pro rata if the fund falls short.
Two details are worth noting. First, the per-text amount is lower than SeeEyeWear's, yet the fund is roughly 38 times larger, because the class is far bigger. Second, according to Market Realist (opens in a new tab), the settlement includes both a nationwide TCPA STOP class (more than one text in 12 months after opting out) and a Florida FTSA class (texts sent at least 15 days after a STOP message). The FTSA is Florida's state telemarketing law. In other words, one opt-out failure can create exposure under both federal and state law.
Why settlement numbers are not a measure of exposure
It is tempting to read a settlement as the price of a violation. The research suggests caution.
Settlement amounts per message ($290, $75) sit below the $500 to $1,500 range that plaintiff firms cite. These are different things. A settlement reflects negotiation, litigation risk on both sides, and the size of the class. Statutory damages, if a plaintiff wins, follow a different logic.
Courts also push back. A defense-side firm reports (opens in a new tab) that the Eleventh Circuit issued a 123-page decision reversing approval of a TCPA class settlement (Drazen). The district court had approved the deal and awarded $7 million in attorneys' fees; the appeals court called the release "overbroad." Both plaintiff-side and defense-side sources here are advocates, so read their framing accordingly. Still, the takeaway is useful: neither a big headline number nor a small one tells you what a given case was truly worth.
What this means for high-volume SMS senders
Both settlements discussed here center on the same theme: texts sent after a person said STOP, or to numbers on the Do Not Call Registry. Those are failures of process rather than of intent. A suppression list that updates late, a vendor handoff that drops opt-outs, or a scrub that skips a data source can each produce repeat messages that look like violations to a plaintiff.
The public sources do not say how SeeEyeWear's alleged failures happened. The allegations are unproven, and the company denies them. But the pattern is clear enough to guide an audit. Because exposure scales with message count, a gap that persists for weeks at high volume is far more costly than one caught in a day. Speed of detection matters as much as the control itself.
What to do now
This checklist reflects general operational practice, not a statement of current legal requirements. Have counsel confirm what applies to your program.
- Test opt-out end to end. Reply STOP from a test number and confirm the number is suppressed everywhere, including across campaigns, sending numbers, and any connected systems.
- Check suppression timing. Measure how long it takes for an opt-out to reach every send path. Shorten any lag.
- Audit your consent records. Confirm you can produce, for any recipient, when and how consent was captured and what they agreed to.
- Scrub against the Do Not Call Registry on a schedule. Document each scrub, and confirm it covers every list you send to.
- Review quiet hours. Make sure send windows follow the recipient's timezone, not yours.
- Review vendor and list-source handoffs. Confirm opt-outs flow back from any partner or tool that sends on your behalf.
- Keep records. Retain opt-out logs, scrub reports, and consent evidence so you can answer a claim quickly.
- Brief counsel. Ask them how your volume, markets, and state-law footprint (such as Florida) affect your risk.
Frequently asked questions
How much are TCPA damages per text message?
According to plaintiff-side law firms, statutory damages are $500 to $1,500 per illegal text. These figures come from law-firm blogs, not from the statute, and the research for this post did not verify them against 47 U.S.C. § 227. Settlement payouts per text are typically lower and depend on class size and fund limits. Ask counsel about the current rules and how courts count violations.
Do TCPA class action settlements pay the full per-text amount?
Not necessarily. In the SeeEyeWear settlement, $290 per text is a maximum available to claimants, only one claim is allowed per person, and payments are cut proportionally if claims and costs exceed the fund. The Kaiser settlement works similarly, with up to $75 per text reduced pro rata if the fund is short.
What is the most common source of per-message claims?
Based on the two settlements covered here, texts sent after someone replied STOP are a recurring theme, along with repeat texts to Do Not Call Registry numbers. These are allegations, not findings, and the defendants deny wrongdoing in the SeeEyeWear case. Testing opt-out handling and scrubbing against the Registry are sensible first audits.
Where to go from here
Reducing TCPA litigation risk in SMS starts with the controls that touch every message: opt-out handling, consent records, and list hygiene. Flowtext is 10DLC registered and TCPA compliant, and its built-in STOP handling, quiet hours by recipient timezone, and list scrubbing are designed to address the most common sources of per-message claims. See the compliance page and features for details. No platform can promise legal protection, so pair any tooling with your own audit and legal review.
This post is general information, not legal advice. Consult counsel about your own messaging programs.
Tags
- TCPA
- SMS compliance
- class actions
- opt-out handling
- litigation risk