Violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is always dangerous.

The TCPA governs most forms of telephone outreach–including calls and SMS messages–and provides protections against unwanted calls using regulated technology and unsolicited sales calls to numbers on the DNC.

The TCPA has two primary provisions– and violating either carries big penalties.

First, under 47 USC 227(b) a caller cannot use regulated technology (a term of art I coined years ago to describe the large number of restricted calling devices the statute covers) to place call to cellular phones and cannot use robocalls to contact landlines in most instances without the proper level of consent.

Second, under 47 USC 227(c) a caller cannot contact a residential number on the national DNC list with an unsolicited telemarketing call.

Again, penalties for violating either of these provisions are steep– but one is decidedly worse.

Do you know which?

The case of Watson v, Manhattan Luxury Autos, 2025 WL 306591 (S.D.N.Y. Jan 24, 2025) holds the answer.

In that case an auto dealership was going out of business and sold its customer list to another dealership. The second dealership began making calls encouraging customers to visit the new dealership for service. This was a big mistake as individuals on the DNC list cannot be contacted without an established business relationship with the caller– and the consumers receiving calls had no such relationship.

The Plaintiff asked the Court to enter judgment for $500.00 per call for each call but the Court refused– and this provides the answer to our question.

The Court correctly found that although a violation of 227(b)–the regulated technology provision–automatically carries a MINIMUM $500.00 penalty, a violation of 227(c)– the DNC provisions– carries a penalty of “up to” $500.00 per call.

Since the dealership violated the DNC provision–and not the regulated technology provision– the determination of just how much (up to $500.00) the dealership will owe to the consumers is a question that must be decided by the jury!

So there you go. Violating either provision of the TCPA is very dangerous. But the regulated technology provisions is decidedly worse.