Unwanted Texts Violate Federal Consumer Protection Laws, Domino’s Pizza Sued

Domino’s Pizza was hit with a putative class action in Florida federal court Sunday alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by a consumer who says he continued to receive marketing text messages from the restaurant chain even after he opted out of receiving coupon offers.

Christopher Legg hopes to represent a nationwide class of cellphone users who opted out of receiving discount codes from Domino’s after sending a “stop all” message to MoGreet Inc., the company that runs the pizza chain’s text messaging campaign. He claims that Domino’s and MoGreet’s actions in continuing to send the messages after they were told to stop.

“Defendants have caused consumers actual harm, not only because consumers were subjected to the aggravation that necessarily accompanies mobile spam, but also because consumers frequently have to pay their cellphone service providers for the receipt of such spam and such messages diminish cellular battery life, waste data storage capacity, and are an intrusion upon seclusion,” according to the complaint.

Legg says he sent out the “stop” message on July 9 but, despite immediate acknowledgement on the part of the company of its receipt of the message along with a promise to stop sending the coupon codes, he received at least two subsequent offer messages from the company.

One of those messages was sent on Nov. 13, he says, just one day after MoGreet settled another TCPA class action for $16 million with the promise that it would stop sending unwanted text messages on behalf of its clients, including Domino’s.

The marketing firm continues to send the messages in bulk, however, to thousands of customers who registered for an initial coupon by sending a short code to a number provided by Domino’s, according to the complaint. Legg says he believes MoGreet is able to do this through the use of an automatic dialing system, a device that is illegal under the TCPA.

Given the standard industry opt-out rate of 3.7 percent, it is likely that the messages continue to affect dozens of customers who sent the “stop all” messages, according to the suit.

The violations run afoul of a  Federal Communications ruling “that a consumer’s prior express consent to receive future text messages may be revoked and texts sent after revocation violate the TCPA,” Legg argues.

Each unsolicited message comes with a penalty of between $500 and $1,500, according to the suit. Legg is also seeking to put an end to the companies’ supposedly unlawful actions.