SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) – A California man alleges a mobile application called Gather is unlawfully sending text messages.
Robert Churchill, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated, filed a complaint on Nov. 15 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against GatherApp Inc. for allege violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
According to the complaint, Churchill alleges that in Oct. 31, he received a text message from the defendant with a link to its website. The plaintiff claims that when a person downloads the defendant's mobile application from the App Store or Google's Play store, defendant automatically harvests the data in the downloader’s contacts list and then sends text messages without consent to each person in the downloader’s contacts list, asking those contacts to download the Gather mobile app. The plaintiff alleges he has no relationship with GatherApp.
The plaintiff holds GatherApp Inc. responsible because the defendant allegedly failed to make the requisite disclosures regarding use of an automatic dialing system and did not obtain the plaintiff's prior express written consent to receive text messages for any purpose.
The plaintiff seeks an award of appropriate monetary damages, attorneys' fees, costs, pre- and post-judgment interest and for such other and further relief as the court deems just and proper. He is represented by Michael Aschenbrener of Kamberlaw LLP in Healdsburg, California.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California case number 3:17-cv-06590-LB