PCMag.com:
By Angela Moscaritolo
Pizza chain Papa John's is facing a $250 million class-action lawsuit for allegedly spamming customers with hundreds of thousands of illegal text messages.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Seattle on Monday, contends that Papa John's violated state and federal law by sending out 500,000 unwanted text messages advertising the chain's products in early 2010. The messages, blasted out to customers through mass texting service OnTime4U, offered deals on Papa John's pizza.
"After I ordered from Papa John's, my telephone started beeping with text messages advertising pizza specials," Erin Chutich, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said in a statement. "Papa John's never asked permission to send me text message advertisements. Hopefully, this will be an important victory for consumers. Our lawsuit is about keeping spam from spreading from our email to our cell phones."
OnTime4U, which sent the messages on behalf of Papa John's franchisees, is also listed as a defendant in the case. There is no evidence that Papa John's contracted directly with OneTime4U, but the suit alleges that the company encouraged its franchisees to use the marketing firm's services.
Franchisees allegedly gave the marketing firm lists of telephone numbers of people who purchased pizza without getting consent from those customers first. OnTime4U then removed landline numbers from the list and blasted the remaining cell phones with text-based advertising.
MORE
Pizza chain Papa John's is facing a $250 million class-action lawsuit for allegedly spamming customers with hundreds of thousands of illegal text messages.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Seattle on Monday, contends that Papa John's violated state and federal law by sending out 500,000 unwanted text messages advertising the chain's products in early 2010. The messages, blasted out to customers through mass texting service OnTime4U, offered deals on Papa John's pizza.
"After I ordered from Papa John's, my telephone started beeping with text messages advertising pizza specials," Erin Chutich, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said in a statement. "Papa John's never asked permission to send me text message advertisements. Hopefully, this will be an important victory for consumers. Our lawsuit is about keeping spam from spreading from our email to our cell phones."
OnTime4U, which sent the messages on behalf of Papa John's franchisees, is also listed as a defendant in the case. There is no evidence that Papa John's contracted directly with OneTime4U, but the suit alleges that the company encouraged its franchisees to use the marketing firm's services.
Franchisees allegedly gave the marketing firm lists of telephone numbers of people who purchased pizza without getting consent from those customers first. OnTime4U then removed landline numbers from the list and blasted the remaining cell phones with text-based advertising.
MORE