• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, February 11, 2015

Microsoft's group-messaging app service GroupMe has prevailed in a lawsuit accusing it of violating a federal law by using an automated dialer to send people unwanted SMS messages.

In a recent ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton in the Northern District of California awarded GroupMe summary judgment on the grounds that the company didn't use an automated dialing system when sending texts.

The lawsuit, filed by mobile user Brian Glauser in 2011, centered on allegations that GroupMe violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which prohibits companies from using automated dialers to send texts without first obtaining recipients' consent.

Glauser alleged in court papers that GroupMe sent him several unsolicited messages from a poker group, including messages welcoming him to GroupMe. One of them, which said it was from “Mike L.,” notified Glauser that he had been added to the group. Subsequent texts included information about plans for scheduling a poker game. He argued that the initial welcome messages violated the federal law.

U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled last Wednesday that the messages weren't sent by an automated dialer -- which she defined as equipment that can dial numbers without “human intervention.”

She specifically noted that the welcome messages were sent “as a direct response to the intervention of Mike L., the 'Poker' group creator.”

“Plaintiff has failed to raise a triable issue of fact as to whether defendant’s texting equipment had the capacity to dial numbers without human intervention, as required to be considered an “autodialer” for TCPA purposes,” she ruled.

Questions about how to define automated dialers are at the center of several pending text-spam lawsuits, including a closely watched case against Yahoo.

In that matter, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals is now weighing Yahoo's liability for allegedly sending cell phone user Bill Dominguez 27,000 unwanted text alerts -- all of which were intended for the phone's previous owner.

U.S. District Court Judge Judge Michael Baylson in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled in Yahoo's favor  last year, when he granted the company summary judgment on the ground that Yahoo's system isn't an automated dialer.

Baylson specifically ruled that there was no evidence that Yahoo's dialing system “had the capacity to randomly or sequentially generate telephone numbers.”

An appellate panel is now considering whether to reinstate Dominguez's complaint.