Your Business Got a Subpoena in Someone Else’s TCPA Case
A subpoena in a TCPA case you aren’t a party to still has to be answered, but it doesn’t have to be answered on the plaintiff’s terms. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 45 lets a nonparty object to overbroad requests and ask the court to protect confidential data and the cost of compliance. Lead sellers and texting platforms get these subpoenas because plaintiffs use them to trace who sent the messages. A careful response protects the business and limits what a plaintiff can use later.
Why do nonparties get subpoenas in TCPA cases?
Because the plaintiff usually doesn’t know the whole chain of who sent a call or text.
A typical TCPA complaint names the brand on the message. The calls themselves may have come from a lead generator or a texting platform working for that brand. The plaintiff’s lawyer uses subpoenas to fill in the gaps, such as who dialed and where the consent record came from. The defendant does the same thing from the other direction when it needs a vendor’s consent records to prove its case.
That makes the subpoena more than paperwork. A nonparty that produces dialing logs showing it sent the messages has just handed the plaintiff a reason to add it as a defendant. A nonparty that produces a clean consent record may end the case for everyone. Read every subpoena with both outcomes in mind.
What does Rule 45 require of the party who served it?
It requires the serving side to limit the burden, and the court has to enforce that.
Under Rule 45(d)(1), a party or attorney issuing a subpoena “must take reasonable steps to avoid imposing undue burden or expense on a person subject to the subpoena.” The court for the district where compliance is required must enforce that duty and may impose a sanction that can include “lost earnings and reasonable attorney’s fees,” per the rule.
There’s also a geographic limit. A document subpoena may command production “at a place within 100 miles of where the person resides, is employed, or regularly transacts business in person,” under Rule 45(c)(2)(A). In practice, most productions happen electronically, but the limit decides which court hears any fight over the subpoena, and that can matter a great deal to a business based far from where the TCPA case is pending.
Before a document subpoena is served on a nonparty, “a notice and a copy of the subpoena must be served on each party,” under Rule 45(a)(4). That means the defendant in the underlying case already knows about it. If the defendant is your customer, expect a call.
How do you object, and when?
In writing, and fast. The objection window under Rule 45 is short and can close before the date the subpoena sets for production.
A person commanded to produce documents may serve “a written objection to inspecting, copying, testing or sampling any or all of the materials,” or to producing electronically stored information in the form requested, under Rule 45(d)(2)(B). The objection must be served “before the earlier of the time specified for compliance” or the rule’s fixed deadline after service, per the rule. Calendar it the day the subpoena arrives.
A timely objection shifts the burden. The serving party then has to move to compel, and any order requiring production “must protect a person who is neither a party nor a party’s officer from significant expense resulting from compliance,” under Rule 45(d)(2)(B)(ii). For a platform asked to pull years of message logs across thousands of numbers, that cost protection carries real weight in negotiations.
Objections work best when they’re specific. Point to the request, say why it’s overbroad or burdensome, and offer a narrower version. A plaintiff who asks for every record of every message may be satisfied with the logs for one phone number and one date range, and a business that offers that early usually spends less than one that fights everything.
When will a court quash or modify the subpoena?
In some situations it must, and in others it may.
The court “must quash or modify a subpoena” that fails to allow a reasonable time to comply, reaches beyond Rule 45(c)’s geographic limits, requires disclosure of privileged matter, or “subjects a person to undue burden,” under Rule 45(d)(3)(A). The court may quash or modify one that requires “disclosing a trade secret or other confidential research, development, or commercial information,” under Rule 45(d)(3)(B).
Lead pricing and the details of a platform’s routing are the kind of commercial information that second category protects. The court can also order production under conditions instead of quashing, if the serving party shows a substantial need and the nonparty is reasonably compensated.
Discovery from anyone is still limited to matter “relevant to any party’s claim or defense and proportional to the needs of the case,” under Rule 26(b)(1). A request for every campaign a lead vendor ran for every client has little to do with one plaintiff’s text messages.
Can a texting platform hand over message content?
Often not without consent, and the line between content and records matters.
The Stored Communications Act says a provider of “an electronic communication service to the public shall not knowingly divulge to any person or entity the contents of a communication while in electronic storage by that service,” under 18 U.S.C. § 2702(a)(1). Records about a customer are treated differently. A provider may divulge a record pertaining to a subscriber, “not including the contents of communications,” to “any person other than a governmental entity,” under § 2702(c).
Whether a particular business texting platform is a provider to the public under the statute depends on its setup, and that question deserves a lawyer’s look before anything is produced. The safer course for a platform is to produce delivery logs and other records, and leave message content to the parties who wrote the messages.
How should a business protect customer data in the production?
Ask for a protective order, or insist on the one already in the case.
A court may, for good cause, issue an order to protect a party or person “from annoyance, embarrassment, oppression, or undue burden or expense,” under Rule 26(c)(1). Most TCPA class actions have a stipulated protective order by the time nonparty subpoenas go out. Before producing anything, get a copy, confirm it covers nonparty productions, and mark the documents under it. The firm’s post on protective orders for customer data in TCPA cases covers how those orders are usually written.
Nonparty subpoena issues and the tools that answer them
| Issue | Rule | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| Overbroad or burdensome requests | Fed. R. Civ. P. 45(d)(1), (d)(3)(A)(iv); 26(b)(1) | A narrower subpoena, or a court order quashing it |
| Cost of a large production | Fed. R. Civ. P. 45(d)(2)(B)(ii) | Protection from the expense of compliance if production is ordered |
| Lead pricing, client lists, routing details | Fed. R. Civ. P. 45(d)(3)(B)(i), (C) | Quashing or modification, or production under conditions |
| Customer phone numbers and personal data | Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(c)(1) | A protective order limiting use and disclosure |
| Message content held by a texting platform | 18 U.S.C. § 2702(a), (c) | A basis to withhold content while producing non-content records |
What to do the week the subpoena arrives
Treat a nonparty subpoena the way you’d treat a demand letter. The firm’s California TCPA defense page explains where these cases usually go next. In the first week:
- Put the call and text logs, platform data, and consent records for the numbers named in the subpoena under a litigation hold, since a subpoena can be the first sign of a later claim against you.
- Pull the opt-out and internal do-not-call records for those numbers, with dates.
- Find the National Do Not Call Registry scrub records and version dates for the campaigns involved.
- Collect the contracts with the client or vendor involved, including any notice and indemnity provisions, along with scripts and recorded or AI-voice message files.
- Talk to a lawyer before producing anything, calling the party that served the subpoena, or discussing the case with your customer.
Questions businesses ask about TCPA subpoenas
Should we tell our client that we received a subpoena?
Check the contract first. Many vendor agreements require prompt notice of legal process involving the client’s campaigns. The client is usually a party and already received notice under Rule 45(a)(4), so what’s left to decide is how much to coordinate. A joint approach can help, but your interests and the client’s aren’t always the same. The firm’s post on joint defense agreements with vendors covers that tension.
Can we just ignore a subpoena from out of state?
No. The court for the district where compliance is required “may hold in contempt a person who, having been served, fails without adequate excuse to obey the subpoena,” under Rule 45(g). If the subpoena is defective, object or move to quash. Don’t let it lapse.
Does producing records mean we’ll be sued?
Not necessarily, but plan for that possibility. Records that show your business dialed or texted the plaintiff can lead to an amended complaint naming you. Records showing proper consent can help end the case. Either way, review what you produce before it goes out, and keep a copy of exactly what was sent.
What if the subpoena comes from a state court?
State courts have their own subpoena rules, and the procedure differs. The core ideas are similar: object on time and narrow the request. Have a lawyer licensed in that state review it.
If your company is drawn into a TCPA case
If your company has been served with a subpoena in a TCPA case, or named after a subpoena response, the logs and consent records you hold often decide how far the case reaches. Rosenberger + Kawabata represents businesses defending TCPA lawsuits and class actions through its business litigation practice, including claims involving lead generation and texting platform records. Contact Rosenberger + Kawabata online for a confidential consultation, or call (310) 894-6921.
Sources
The subpoena rule is Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 45. The scope of discovery and protective orders are in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26. The Stored Communications Act’s disclosure rules are at 18 U.S.C. § 2702.
This post is general information about the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and related laws as of October 19, 2026. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Courts and the FCC change the rules in this area often, and the outcome of any claim depends on its facts. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.