The TCPA Litigation Avalanche of 2025: Causes and Consequences

​The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is like no other consumer protection statute in history. No other law seeking to protect the public from harm has done so little to achieve its stated goals, and so much to enlarge the bank accounts of greedy attorneys and unscrupulous consumers by flooding the courts with a massive deluge of lawsuits. Last year, that TCPA litigation deluge reached biblical proportions.

While numbers vary depending upon the source, in 2025 The Blacklist Alliance tracked 2,858 lawsuits filed in Federal and state courts, up from a total of 1,819 in 2024. This represents an astonishing increase of 63.7%. Possible causes for this dramatic rise are discussed below, but these numbers, alarming as they are, likely represent only a fraction of last year’s TCPA litigation activity.

The Hidden TCPA Litigation Iceberg: Small Claims Court Filings

The reported TCPA litigation totals are derived from federal and state courts of general jurisdiction with electronic filing and tracking systems. However, a substantial but unknowable number of individual consumers file TCPA claims in small claims courts, which fall outside systematic tracking mechanisms.

There is no single, authoritative nationwide count of small claims courts, but a widely cited estimate is that there are roughly 3,000–3,300 small claims courts (or small-claims divisions of broader trial courts) across the United States. By comparison, the federal court system has only 94 District Courts.

Small claims courts typically have jurisdictional limits of $5,000-$10,000 depending on the state. A single TCPA violation at the minimum $500 statutory damage rate falls comfortably within these limits, making small claims an attractive venue for individual consumers seeking quick resolution without attorney fees. However, these filings are invisible in the reported data for the following reasons:

• No Centralized Reporting: Unlike federal courts with comprehensive electronic filing systems, small claims courts lack unified reporting mechanisms. Each of the approximately 3,300 small claims courts nationwide operates independently, with no systematic data collection.
  
• Individual Nature: Small claims TCPA cases typically involve single plaintiffs alleging a handful of unwanted calls, making them economically insignificant individually but potentially numerous in aggregate.
  
• Settlement Pressure: Many small claims TCPA cases settle quickly before trial, leaving no public record of the violation or resolution.
  
• Pro Se Filings: Consumers often file these cases without attorneys, reducing the likelihood of systematic reporting to legal research services.

Given that the TCPA allows individual actions and that consumer awareness of the statute has grown through media coverage and class action notices, it is reasonable to speculate that small claims TCPA filings could number in the thousands annually nationwide.

If only 10% of 2025’s 2,858 reported TCPA cases have parallel small claims counterparts, that would suggest approximately 285 additional cases. More realistically, the small claims volume likely exceeds reported filings, potentially adding another 3,000+ cases to the total litigation picture. This hidden iceberg of litigation represents a risk that businesses cannot measure but must assume exists.

Drivers of the Litigation Explosion

The Rise of Litigation Factories: The litigation surge reflects a maturing ecosystem of professional plaintiffs and specialized law firms that have aggressively scaled their operations. These firms have hired additional attorneys and developed sophisticated systems to identify likely cases and perfected the process of churning out cookie-cutter Complaints in massive quantities, essentially transforming themselves into litigation factories. The business model is straightforward: identify technical TCPA violations, file class actions, and extract settlements that can reach hundreds of millions of dollars.

Persistent Non-Compliance and Consumer Frustration: Despite years of persistent TCPA enforcement by regulators and litigators, many marketers continue practices that violate the statute, while consumer frustration with robocalls remains at historic highs. The continued barrage of unwanted communications feeds the litigation machine and ensures a steady supply of new cases even as courts issue decisions clarifying TCPA requirements.

Time-of-Day Allegations Proliferation: A newer litigation vector involves allegations that companies contact consumers outside TCPA-permitted calling hours, which federal rules restrict to before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. local time. In 2025, a single South Florida firm filed hundreds of lawsuits alleging these timing violations, many involving text messages. These cases exploit the TCPA's strict liability provisions, where even good-faith mistakes about time zones or daylight-saving time can trigger liability.

FCC Revocation Rule Confusion: Another potential catalyst involves widespread misinterpretation of the FCC's new revocation rules governing how consumers can withdraw consent to receive calls or texts. Many businesses have implemented consent management systems that fail to meet the FCC's exacting standards. This confusion leaves companies exposed even when they believe they are compliant, creating fertile ground for litigation. The rules require businesses to honor revocation requests through any reasonable means, but implementation complexities have generated numerous technical violations.

The Affordability Crisis: Rising consumer prices and elevated unemployment rates create an economic environment that fuels TCPA litigation in multiple ways. When household budgets tighten due to inflation and joblessness increases, consumers become simultaneously more desperate to recover any available funds and more irritated by unwanted telemarketing calls that interrupt their day. This combination transforms TCPA violations from mere annoyances into actionable grievances worthy of litigation.

Moreover, higher unemployment means more people have time to file small claims actions or respond to class action notices without facing scheduling conflicts, increasing the likelihood that potential plaintiffs actually engage with the legal system. For plaintiffs’ attorneys, economic hardship also expands the addressable market: more consumers are receptive to class action recruitment pitches when they face financial strain, and the $500-$1,500 per-call statutory damages become increasingly attractive to individuals struggling with bills and expenses.

From a macro perspective, rising consumer frustration during economic downturns typically correlates with increased regulatory complaints and litigation across consumer protection statutes, and the TCPA—with its statutory damages structure—offers uniquely attractive financial incentives. The 2025 TCPA litigation spike thus likely reflects not merely improved plaintiff bar infrastructure or regulatory confusion, but also the broader economic anxiety that makes consumers more willing to pursue litigation against businesses perceived as disrespecting their time through unwanted calls and texts.

Final Thoughts

The TCPA litigation avalanche of 2025 reflects a perfect storm of aggressive plaintiff firms, regulatory confusion, persistent non-compliance, judicial developments, and economic uncertainty. With class actions dominating the landscape and small claims filings adding an invisible but substantial litigation layer, businesses face unprecedented risk. The 63.7% increase in 2025 filings likely understates total TCPA litigation activity by a significant margin.

Compliance is no longer a matter of best practices but of corporate survival. Companies must treat TCPA compliance as a core operational priority, investing in technology, training, and specialized services like The Blacklist Alliance to navigate this treacherous environment. The cost of these measures pales beside the potential for multi-million-dollar judgments that can devastate a company.