No public interest, no TCPA protection

On rehearing of Goldberg v. EMR (USA Holdings) Inc., the Fifth Court implemented the Texas Supreme Court’s December 2019 Creative Oil opinion and found that relevant communications did not adequately implicated issues of public concern to receive the TCPA’s protection: ‘The e-mails were communications because they were made by Defendants and submitted to the purchasers and suppliers. The communications were “made in connection with” “an issue related to . . . a good, product, or service in the marketplace,” scrap metal. However, all these communications were private communications between private parties about purely private economic matters. Therefore, these communications were not “made in connection with a matter of public concern” under the TCPA.’ No. 05-18-00261-CV (Jan. 23, 2020) (on motion for rehearing) (emphasis added). The Court reached a similar conclusion about other such business tort claims in Gehrke v. Merritt Hawkins & Assocs., LLC, No. 05-19-00026-CV (Jan. 17, 2020) (mem. op.)