Dive summary:

• The FCC clarified application of the 1991 Telephone Consumer Protection Act regarding automated text messages.
• Companies and organizations are allowed to send a final, one-time text message to confirm an opt-out request of a text messaging program.
• The FCC had not received a single complaint about the practice, and it actually had received complaints from consumers that wanted confirmation they had been removed from a text messaging program.

From the article:

… Last year, Barclays PLC's paid more than $8 million to settle a class action suit filed in California that it violated the TCPA because it sent a confirmatory text message. Other companies that have been threatened with lawsuits include American Express, Twitter and Facebook.

Left unabated, the lawsuits could have cost the mobile marketing industry billions of dollars, said Michael Becker, North American managing director for the Mobile Marketing Association. …