On June 24, 2021, Judge Vince Chhabria of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted DoNotPay’s motion to dismiss with prejudice a lawsuit alleging violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati represented DoNotPay in the matter.

DoNotPay is a legal services chatbot that advertises itself as the “world’s first robot lawyer” and helps people challenge bank account fees, obtain green cards and visas, sue over data breaches, collect money owed from consumer class action settlements, and carry out dozens of other legal actions. Mathew Hufnus, one of the named plaintiffs in the lawsuit, had alleged that DoNotPay sent him a text message without prior express written consent, and filed a class action lawsuit in the Northern District of California accusing the company of sending unsolicited advertising texts in violation of the TCPA.  

According to the court’s order, to state a claim under the TCPA, the plaintiff must allege that DoNotPay sent messages using an “automatic telephone dialing system” (autodialer) within the meaning of the TCPA. However, the court found that because DoNotPay only contacts phone numbers specifically provided by consumers during DoNotPay’s registration process, and not random or sequential phone numbers, it does not qualify as an autodialer under the TCPA. As a result, the court said, “Hufnus’s claim thus fails as a matter of law, and dismissal is without leave to amend.”

The Wilson Sonsini team that represented DoNotPay in the matter consisted of Sara Tolbert, Lily Miller, and Tonia Klausner.

For more information, please refer to the court’s order.