On September 15, the Court of Appeals of the State of Washington reversed a lower court’s decision in Aaland v. CRST Home Solutions, LLC (CRST), holding that unsolicited text messages sent to recruit independent contractors qualified as “commercial” messages under the state’s Commercial Electronic Mail Act (CEMA). The decision vastly expands the scope of the state statute.

Background

CRST, a logistics company, sent unsolicited text messages (like the one below) to potential independent contractors in Washington, including the plaintiff, as part of a recruitment drive:

Hi, I’m looking for a licensed plumber that may be interested in doing residential dishwasher installations for retailers like [ ] in the Seattle area. If you’d like more information, please respond with your email add

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