Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/19-511_p86b.pdf
Page Number: 6.0

Cite as:  592 U. S. ____ (2021) 

3 

Opinion of the Court 

“guest room[s] or patient room[s] of a hospital,” or “to any 
telephone number assigned to a paging service [or] cellular 
telephone service” without the “prior express consent of the
called party.”  47 U. S. C. §227(b)(1)(A).2  The TCPA creates 
a private right of action for persons to sue to enjoin unlaw-
ful uses of autodialers and to recover up to $1,500 per vio-
lation or three times the plaintiffs’ actual monetary losses. 
§227(b)(3). 

B 
Petitioner Facebook, Inc., maintains a social media plat-
form  with  an  optional  security  feature  that  sends  users 
“login notification” text messages when an attempt is made
to access their Facebook account from an unknown device 
or browser.  If necessary, the user can then log into Face-
book and take action to secure the account.  To opt in to this 
service, the user must provide and verify a cell phone num-
ber to which Facebook can send messages.

In 2014, respondent Noah Duguid received several login-
notification text messages from Facebook, alerting him that
someone had attempted to access the Facebook account as-
sociated with his phone number from an unknown browser. 
But Duguid has never had a Facebook account and never 
gave Facebook his phone number.3  Unable to stop the no-
tifications, Duguid brought a putative class action against
Facebook.  He alleged that Facebook violated the TCPA by 
maintaining  a  database  that  stored  phone  numbers  and 
programming  its  equipment  to  send  automated  text  mes-
sages  to  those  numbers  each  time  the  associated  account 
was accessed by an unrecognized device or web browser. 
—————— 

2 Neither  party  disputes  that  the  TCPA’s  prohibition  also  extends  to
sending unsolicited text messages.  See Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez, 
577 U. S. 153, 156 (2016).  We therefore assume that it does without con-
sidering or resolving that issue. 

3 As Facebook explains, it is possible that Duguid was assigned a recy-
cled cell phone number that previously belonged to a Facebook user who
opted to receive login notifications.