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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Illinois consumer alleges Foursquare hijacked messages to advertise Swarm

Foursquare

CHICAGO (Legal Newsline) - An Illinois woman is suing a mobile application company, alleging it sent text messages without consumers' consent.

Edyta Tabor, individually and for all others similarly situated, filed a class action lawsuit April 4 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division against Foursquare Labs Inc., alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.

  

The suit alleges Foursquare sent text message advertisements to consumers' cell phones, requesting they download Swarm, the company's social networking and messaging service mobile software application.

The complaint states Foursquare obtained consumers' numbers by first offering its existing users the chance to message friends through its app, and then replacing those messages with its own ads, a marketing practice known as "spam-viting" or "growth hacking."

Foursquare did not obtain prior express consent from the recipients of its text messages, the suit states.

  

Tabor and others in the class seek a jury trial, declaratory and injunctive relief, disgorgement, actual damages, statutory and treble damages, plus attorney fees and costs. They are represented by attorneys Ari J. Scharg and Rafey S. Balabanian of Edelson PC in Chicago.

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division Case number 1:16-CV-04008

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