MIAMI (Legal Newsline) — An Alabama man is suing cell phone manufacturers, alleging violations of the Wiretap Act, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, as well as invasion of privacy and trespass to chattels.
Aaron Bonds of Mobile, Alabama, filed a class action complaint, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Nov. 22 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida against Blu Products Inc., Shanghai Adups Technology Co. Ltd. and Adups USA LLC, alleging failure to exercise reasonable care and prudence in protecting consumers' personal information.
According to the complaint, on Sept. 30, Bonds purchased a Blu cellular phone unit for its listed "cheap" price of $59.99 from Amazon.com. The suit says he used the phone regularly to place and receive calls and has also transmitted and received sensitive personal and work-related information via text messages on the device.
The lawsuit states on Nov. 15, Bonds received an e-mail from Amazon, announcing a potential security issue with the smartphone he recently purchased, including a hidden firmware in Blu phones provided by Adsup, that intercepts, records and transmits the private information and confidential text messages to a server in Shanghai, China.
The plaintiff alleges the defendants collected sensitive personal data and communications of their users and transmitted the data and communications to an Adups server in Shanghai without the knowledge or consent of the users.
Bonds seeks trial by jury, judgment in his favor, certifying case as a class action, appoint the plaintiff as the class representative and his counsel as his class counsel, statutory damages, injunctive and declaratory relief, interest, attorney fees and court costs, and all relief that is just. The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Amy Zeman of Gibbs Law Group in Miami Beach, Florida, and by Daniel C. Girard, Jordan Elias and Esfand Y. Nafisi of Gibbs Law Group in San Francisco.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida Case number 16-cv-24892