A Fast Sign Co. Inc. v. American Home Svcs. Inc.

The trial court properly based liability and damages, in a class action suit regarding unsolicited fax advertisements, on the number of such advertisements sent rather than the number received.

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In 2002 and 2003, appellee American Home Services, Inc. AHS, a siding, window, and gutter installation company, contracted with Sunbelt Communications, Inc. Sunbelt, for Sunbelt to send a total of 318,000 unsolicited advertisements to various facsimile machines operating in metropolitan Atlanta. In October 2003, appellant A Fast Sign Company, Inc. d/b/a Fastsigns Fastsigns, one of the recipients of these unsolicited advertisements, brought a class-action lawsuit1 against AHS, asserting violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 TCPA, 47 U.S.C. § 227. At the conclusion of a bench trial, the trial court found that AHS violated the TCPA because it admitted in judicio that it had sent 306,000 unsolicited facsimile advertisements. Finding that violation of the TCPA was wilful and knowing, the trial court awarded the class $459 million in damages, or the amount of $1,500 for each fax sent. The trial court declined to award punitive damages and attorney’s fees. AHS appealed the ruling to the Court of Appeals.

The Court of Appeals vacated the trial court’s judgment and remanded the case, finding that the trial court erroneously applied the TCPA by basing liability and damages on the number of unsolicited advertisements sent rather than the number of unsolicited advertisements received by class members. American Home Services, Inc., v. Fast Sign Co., Inc., 310 Ga. App. 315 713 SE2d 396 2011.2 We granted Fastsigns’ petition for certiorari, posing the question whether the Court of Appeals erred when it determined that only the receipt of an unsolicited fax created an actionable violation of the TCPA. For the reasons set forth below, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed and the case is remanded for further proceedings.

A Fast Sign Co. Inc. v. American Home Svcs. Inc.

The trial court properly based liability and damages, in a class action suit regarding unsolicited fax advertisements, on the number of such advertisements sent rather than the number received.

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