Supreme Court Backs Facebook, Limits Federal Robocall Ban (2)

The U.S. Supreme Court limited the reach of the decades-old federal ban on robocalls, siding with business groups and throwing out a lawsuit that accused Facebook Inc. of repeatedly sending unwanted text messages.

The unanimous decision, which overturned a lower court ruling, said a key provision in the 1991 Telephone Consumer Protection Act applies only to calling systems that use a random or sequential number generator, an approach that Facebook told the court has become all but obsolete.

The ruling will give telemarketers, companies and political parties freer rein to use computer systems to call or text mobile phones without ...