These state statutes often create a fragmented regulatory patchwork that causes “compliance nightmares” for businesses operating across state lines. They run into significant technical hurdles, such as the practical impossibility for businesses to determine a mobile phone user’s real-time physical location due to federal Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) rules. This makes location-based rules, like “quiet hours” tied to the recipient’s time zone, practically impossible to comply with.

Furthermore, some state laws impose restrictions that conflict with federal law, even when a consumer has provided consent, overriding consumer intent and hindering legitimate business communication. Others include technical requirements for text messaging that simply don’t align with modern operational realities, like requiring an individual’s first and last name to be included in a business’s text messages.

These inconsistencies and technical misalignments, coupled with private rights of action and statutory damages, create an environment ripe for “shakedown” lawsuits.