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Papa John's Sued For Unwanted Pizza-Related Texts

Posted by samzenpus on from the spam-spam-spam-pizza-spam dept.

jfruh writes "Nationwide pizza chain Papa John's is finding itself on the receiving end of a $250 million text spam lawsuit. From the article: 'Seattle law firm Heyrich Kalish McGuigan, representing three Papa John's customers, alleged that the pizza delivery service has sent 500,000 unwanted text messages to customers. If the court finds that Papa John's violated the U.S. Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the pizza maker could have to pay damages of $500 per text message, or US$250 million, one of the largest damage awards under the 1991 law, the law firm said. "Many customers complained to Papa John's that they wanted the text messages to stop, and yet thousands of spam text messages were sent week after week," Donald Heyrich, attorney for the plaintiffs said in a statement. "This should be a wake-up call to advertisers. Consumers do not want spam on their cell phones."'

3 of 418 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds like a Marketing-led clusterfuck by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What I imagine happened is this: A marketing firm contacts Papa John's marketing about spamming sms, convinces them its a great idea.

    Marketing arm of Papa Johns goes ahead on its own, resulting in this case.

    At no point was any technical, legal or compliance arm of Papa Johns consulted, where they would have found people who know about this stuff due to existing business relationships with above-board SMS platform providers who would have informed them of the legal requirements for operating a sms service (opt-ins, requirement for STOP handling, etc).

    Anonymous because the stuff in bold is true.

    This won't go to trial, it will be settled beforehand. The case is that unwinnable for Papa Johns.

  2. Re:The law says... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    But of course there's a loop hole... one used by a company during this past election.

    You don't spam the phone by sending text messages... you spam the phone by sending "emails" to
    @

    Such as 8145553345@vtext.com or whatever Verizon's service is. The company in Virginia that was doing this hasn't gone to trial yet but many see it as "breaking the spirit of the law but not actually the law its self".

  3. Re:If I get spam from a pizza company, by Y2KDragon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    No, the drivers lose in the cost of gas to go out. They lose tips for non-existent deliveries. They lose income from people being angry and petty. Remember, the people working in the stores aren't the ones who sent the spam, but they will be the ones to bear the worst of the punishment for such actions. Best response is to just not buy from them anymore. I've stopped ordering a long time ago when I found out he was a heavy political backer of the "nut-job right" (not to be confused with actual Conservatives).