What is the Washington CEMA?

The short version

• CEMA is chapter 19.190 of the Revised Code of Washington. You can read the full text here.
• It bars marketing texts to Washington cell phones unless the person clearly agreed in advance.
• It bars marketing emails to Washington residents that use false or misleading subject lines, or that fake or hide where they came from.
• Since June 11, 2026, it sets damages of $100 for each illegal text or email.
• It doesn’t cover phone calls. Other Washington laws do.

Who CEMA protects

The text message rule protects phone numbers assigned to Washington residents. The email rule covers marketing email sent to an address the sender knows, or has reason to know, belongs to a Washington resident, and email sent from a computer in Washington. The law applies to anyone who sends these messages or knowingly helps send them, including companies, and it doesn’t carve out messages to business owners or their employees.

The text message rule

A business may not send, or help send, a text that promotes property, goods or services for sale or lease to a Washington cell phone. The main exception is when the person clearly and affirmatively consented in advance to get those texts. Washington courts have said that consent has to run to the business that sends the text, and have read “promote” broadly enough to include recruiting texts.

See spam texts and robocalls for examples.

The email rule

A marketing email covered by CEMA can’t use another company’s domain name without permission or otherwise hide or fake where it came from. It also can’t use a subject line containing false or misleading information. In 2025, in Brown v. Old Navy, the Washington Supreme Court held that this covers any false or misleading fact in the subject line, like a sale’s end date, but not opinion or hype.

See misleading marketing emails for examples.

What changed in 2026

After Old Navy, more than a hundred CEMA lawsuits were filed. The Legislature responded with House Bill 2274, which took effect June 11, 2026. It made two changes for lawsuits filed on or after that date.

• Damages went from $500 to $100 for each illegal text or email (or actual damages, if higher).
• For subject lines, the sender must have known, or should have known from the circumstances, that the information was false or misleading.

The text message rule itself didn’t change.

How claims work

A CEMA violation is treated as a violation of Washington’s Consumer Protection Act. That’s the law people use to bring these claims, and it lets a court order the company to pay the winning side’s reasonable attorney’s fees. When a company sends the same messages to many people, the claims are often brought as a class action. Lawyers commonly count damages for each message, though how violations are counted can depend on the case.

What about phone calls?

CEMA covers texts and emails, not calls. Two other Washington laws cover sales calls.

• Recorded sales calls. RCW 80.36.400 bars using a machine that dials numbers and plays a recorded or artificial voice sales message to anyone in Washington, including messages left on voicemail. It sets $1,000 for each call, and it has no business exception.
• Live telemarketing. RCW 80.36.390 requires callers to identify themselves within 30 seconds, bars calls before 8 a.m. and after 8 p.m. and calls to numbers on the national Do Not Call list, and requires callers to stop calling for a year when asked. Repeated violations carry at least $1,000 each. It doesn’t cover business to business calls.

How long you have

These claims are generally brought under the Consumer Protection Act, which has a four year deadline. Proof gets harder to find over time, so it’s best not to wait.

If you’re getting these messages

• Don’t delete the texts, emails or voicemails.
• Take screenshots that show the sender, number and date.
• Note whether they reach a personal phone or a business phone.
• Get a free attorney review.