SAN DIEGO (Legal Newsline) - A class action has been brought against Guess? Inc. after consumers claim it negligently contacted them through text messaging and violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
In recent years, marketers "stymied by federal laws limiting solicitation by telephone, facsimile machine and e-mail have increasingly looked to alternative technologies through which to send bulk solicitations to consumers easily and cheaply," according to a complaint filed Jan. 3 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California at San Diego.
Farideh Haghayeghi claims text messaging is one of the newest bulk marketing methods in advertising and, while the instantaneous nature of text messaging makes it very appealing to telemarketers, it is very annoying to consumers subjected to spam text messages.
Unlike other forms of advertisement, text messages actually cost its recipients money, because cellular phone users must frequently pay their wireless service providers either for each text message or call they receive, or incur a usage allocation deduction to their text plan, regardless of whether or not the message is authorized, according to the suit.
Haghayeghi claims over the course of an extended period beginning no later than 2009, the defendant and/or its agents directed the mass transmission of text messages to cellular phones nationwide in an attempt to reach customers or potential customers of the defendant's products.
In 2013, Haghayeghi received several unsolicited text messages on her cell phone from Guess?, which she claims constituted as "calls" under the TCPA that were not for emergency purposes, according to the suit.
Haghayeghi claims she did not provide Guess? or its agents prior express consent to receive unsolicited text messages and the defendant never told her that it would use her cell phone number to send her promotional text messages.
Each text message was made using equipment that had the capacity to store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator, according to the suit.
Haghayeghi claims the defendants actions violated the TCPA and caused her, and other class members, damages.
Haghayeghi is seeking $500 for herself and each class member in statutory damages. She is being represented by Karen E. Nakon of Strategic Legal Practices.
The case has been assigned to District Judge John A. Houston.
Nakon, who is an associate at Strategic Legal Practices, concentrates her practice area on wage and hour class actions and breach of warranty litigation.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California at San Diego case number: 3:14-cv-00020
From Legal Newsline: Kyla Asbury can be reached at classactions@legalnewsline.com.
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