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Papa John's Sued For Unwanted Pizza-Related Texts
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."'
All of them should be vaporized in a fiery asteroid explosion.
How dare they turn down delicious tasty pizza!
Here at this place I don't have any relation to in the slightest, they (we) sell delicious pizza!
I am sure the judge will see the way and enjoy his delicious free pizza for life.
to just have pirated 3 movies and be done with it.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Companies should honor requests for people to be able to opt out of their text messaging programs. I used to work in a call center supporting a major cellular carrier and their devices. The most common problem people called about was text messages they did not want and needed help in stopping. All we could do was educate the customer on how to opt out of the text messaging spam. This was one year ago. I left and never looked back.
Enjoy your justice - American sytle.
Real spam, real annoying: Papa John's
I'm going to order so many pizzas to be sent to random addresses with the name "sam spam" etc they're likely to get the message pretty quickly. Or perhaps not. But it's gonna cost them!
Interesting to see if outrageous statutory damages are imposed on a company (they're just like a person, remember!) as they are with individuals who pirate movies. Wouldn't want there to be double standards or anything...
The law says that you aren't allowed to spam cell phones with commercial advertisements. No opt out necessary.
Just as info for those who don't know these morons.
"Before the election Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter, a big Romney supporter, was one of the highest profile CEOs threatening layoffs and pizza price hikes (god forbid!) if Obama won. He doubled down after the election, like the Vegas man saying he’d start making layoffs and reducing hours at Papa John’s locations rather than having to provide healthcare for people working more than 30 hours per week."
http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/190955/idiots-line-up-to-thank-papa-johns-for-screwing-them-out-of-healthcare/
If they offered a spam topping on their pizza then I'll be interested.
Little rectangular squares of ambrosia..mmmmm.....pizza....
I used to get texts from Pizza Hut until I asked them to stop. However if Papa John ignored their own "stop" requests they shouldn't be surprised if they get fined (mind you $500 per text is a bit excessive).
They seem like a slow moving wounded wildebeest sort of business exhibiting obvious prey like behavior to class action jackals. I mean an actual meatspace storefront .... Please.
You seem to regard science as some kind of dodge... or hustle.
We could go for the anti-"Consumers do not want spam on their cell phones" dollar. That’s a good market, very smart.
Look at our research. We see that many people feel they do not want spam on their cell phones.
Now guys how shall we target them....mmm
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.
,b>Devs cook up 'leakproof' all-Tor untrackable platform Whonix? You'll never find out, The Man
By John Leyden | 11.13.2012
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/13/whonix/
http://sourceforge.net/p/whonix/wiki/Home
"Developers are brewing an anonymous general purpose computing platform, dubbed Whonix.
Whonix is designed to ensure that applications (such as Flash and Java etc) can only connect through Tor. The design goal, at least, is that direct connections (leaks) ought to be impossible. "This is the only way we know of that can reliably protect your anonymity from client application vulnerabilities and IP/DNS and protocol leaks," the developers explain.
The main goal is to prevent the determination of users' IP address and location. Not even malware that has buried deep into machines can access IP address information. In this way, Whonix aims to be safer than Tor anonymity software alone.
Whonix can be used in conjunction with VPN technology - routing networks through isolated remote computer networks - for even greater security.
The technology is better described as design approach or platform than as an operating system. In one example, the implementation of anonymity is provided around Tor on two virtual machines using VirtualBox and Debian GNU/Linux. Whonix can be installed on every computer capable of running Virtual Box (virtualisation software), so it supports Windows, OS X, Linux, BSD and Solaris. Running the technology on physically separate machines (a Whonix gateway and a Whonix workstation) would also work, and might provide greater security, say the devs.
The technology is currently only at an Alpha stage of early development, making it suitable for use only for the computing equivalent of test pilots.
In a post to a full disclosure mailing list last week, the main developer behind the project explains its goal and requests help from other members of the development community.
More details on the emerging computing platform can be found in a development Wiki here. The developers are pretty open about the tradeoff in using their technology (more complex set-up, potentially slower) as well as the anonymity advantages of their approach.
Paul Ducklin, head of technology in Asia Pacific for Sophos, said the approach followed by Whonix is different from the Live CDs associated with more traditional anonymity systems. This brings advantages as well as some drawbacks.
"Whonix is different from most existing 'all-in-one anonymity' systems inasmuch as the lead developer decided not to stick to the idea of a Live CD but to go with a set of virtual machines that don't need to fit on a CD or to boot from one," Ducklin explained.
"This allows much greater functionality and easier security updating."
The main disadvantage is that Whonix is more complex than comparable systems.
"The safety and security of your Whonix environment is dependent on the safety and security of your host OS, of the virtualisation software and of its configuration," Ducklin told El Reg. "The anonymity system then becomes, at worst, no more secure than the host itself. So you just took one problem (guest anonymity) and made it two problems (guest anonymity and host security).
"Whonix's size also makes its internal surface area larger than is strictly necessary. That in turn brings its own risks."
Ducklin added that there are many "tricks and traps of anonymity online", many covered by the Whonix developer. He added that users would be well advised to review these before placing their faith in Whonix (or any other approach) to shield their identity online."
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2012/Nov/2
http://sourceforge.net/p/whonix/wiki/Security
"Consumers do not want spam"
FTFY
"This should be a wake-up call to advertisers. Consumers do not want spam on their cell phones."'
Let the truth set you free. CONSUMERS do not want spam ANYWHERE.
You a craxy, nuh !! I be a Papa John !! I be a da footballa pizza man !! You no wanna my pie, you a no can hava my pie, nuh !! Ana my a reaka nama isa Luigi, ana Ia spita ina youza pie alladatime, nuh !! A nowa Ima gonna shita ina youza pie, nuh !!
How many of their large sized pizzas can fit inside the human rectum?
Man, it really sucks that Papa Johns would do crap like that, with the texting and threats of layoffs and reduced hours. What a cheapskate that guy is. Too bad they make the best pizza out of the three big chains. Now I might have to consider not eating it on ideological grounds.
Jerks.
I knew it before reading: yet another ad agency. So many marketing firms worldwide have waded deep into the technology pool without any understanding at the leadership level, much less the tactical level about the very basics of IT operations and management that have been honed for decades. From quality to security to legality (in this case), it's go-go-go-launch-and-move-on with people with marketing backgrounds making the calls, pressuring their underling tech people to deliver at all costs.
Couldn't happen to a "nicer" guy. He was so angry about the $0.14 per pizza he would have to spend to give his employees healthcare coverage that he will now be paying out the equivalent on healthcare costs for an entire state and with nothing to show for it.
Oops.
Stupid is as stupid does.
Seems to me the company that Papa John's (or it's franchisees) hired to run the campaign is responsible for deciding who gets the messages... Unless, of course, there is a document from Papa John's or it's franchisees directing the third-party to either ignore requests to remove numbers from the campaign OR instructed the vendor to send text messages to anyone without regard for their desire to receive such messages.
I find it hard to believe that either Papa John 's or it's franchisees would be dumb enough to write such instruction to the third-party running the campaign.
Ken
Papa john's.
he 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...
That would have bought some health care for their employees.
According to Forbes magazine, it would cost Papa Johns 5 cents per pizza to provide health care to their employees.
http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2012/11/14/Forbes-Papa-Johns-ACA-cost-5-cents/UPI-54101352940627/
It never was about the nickle and it never was. Most species of apes, specifically the males, assert their sexual dominance by keeping more of the good stuff - whatever that might be- for themselves than they can possibly use. This is so they can broadcast the fact of their dominance to females .
I think it's safe to say that the owner of Papa Johns is a physically unprepossessing specimen, basically he looks like some guy on your neighborhood watch.
http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/08/papa-johns-obamacare-will-raise-pizza-prices-131331.html
Without a mindset that causes him to spend his life seeking, acquiring hording and displaying his wealth, he'd never get laid, or at least, he would not get as laid as he feels he should be.
In making a show of denying those under him healthcare, and especially by talking about how little it would cost him to provide those benefits as per the article above his primordial mind is attempting to broadcast the fact of his sexual dominance / desirability to available females. That's what's going on here.
When shit as demented as "No nickle for healthcare !!!! " becomes that public and is even paraded around by the perps themselves, you have to go to waaaaay back in evolutionary time to find the part of their brain that's being activated.
It's amusing that the conservatives who deny evolution is real seem also to be the people whose motivations are most clearly amenable to forces governing basic evolutionary processes.
It is in sync with their political views which I don't like either. http://www.politico.com/politico44/2012/08/papa-johns-obamacare-will-raise-pizza-prices-131331.html Faux News will now tell us this is conspiracy by the Obama administration.
Any pizza place that narcs pot smokers deserves only our contempt.
It could be argued that unless they specified in the contract that it was to be opt-in, or double opt-in, they are responsible, especially given evidence that they knew it was "probably illegal". "I told the hit hitman to 'get rid of him', I didn't specifically say 'kill him'" doesn't fly.
'force' him to raise the price of his garbage pizzas? I mean just this year he was kvetching that 'Obamacare' would make him raise the price by a dollar per pie. This guy is STUPID. Anyone in business who does not understand the law does NOT permitt you to spam cel phones. And more, only a rude bastard would dare to spam the cel phones - one who does NOT deserve your business nor mine.
I hope that other companies are paying attention to this. To me, unwanted texts are particularly annoying. I'm already used to finding dead tree junk mail in my mailbox and junk email but there is something about junk texts that just seems... sleazy. News flash Papa...if I want to order a pie I know where to find you. No need to spam me with junk texts. Maybe the problem is that in order to receive text messages I have to pay for them, unlike email and tree mail.
If they get hit with the $250M fine we all know what will happen...low paid pizza workers will get laid off. Law firm gets rich(er). Consumer ends up getting the award in the form of a coupon for the next Papa John's pizza. The only positive outcome will be if other companies see this and decide not to follow that path.
Lets see, someone who actually is running a business is making decisions based on the cost of doing business, so the answer is to call him a moron. Try running a business yourself, it should be fairly easy with Papa Johns making so many bad decisions.
Nice followup to the Obamacare PR fiasco, dipshits. Alienate half your customers by being a dick about providing health care coverage for your employees and then top that by spamming everyone's cell phones with unwanted texts.
One more is a hat trick. You're this close to the stupid trifecta, might as well go for the gold.
Maybe announce you don't want to pay for birth control and alienate your female customers. Or rape comments are all the rage these days, though it would be hard to come up with any new material on that topic.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Actually, the FCC has a currently open comment period on how to address automated system for sending spam texts to cell phones. See http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?id=7022037251
With this Public Notice, we seek comment on the petition for an expedited clarification and
declaratory ruling filed by Revolution Messaging, LLC.1 Revolution Messaging asks the Commission to
clarify that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)2 and the Commission’s related rules3 apply
to users of Internet-to-phone text messaging technology and similar technologies involving the storage
and automatic dialing of wireless telephone numbers.4 Revolution Messaging states that such a ruling
would make clear that Internet-to-phone text messaging technology is a type of “automatic telephone
dialing system” under the Commission’s rules and is therefore subject to the prohibitions in the TCPA
and the Commission’s related rules.
Anyone can file comments urging the FCC to make clear that such systems should be considered a type of “automatic telephone dialing system” under the Commission’s rules.
Read the full petition here: http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?id=7022037252
File comments on the FCC ECFS system, the docket number to use is "02-278". http://http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/upload/
And although the deadline is close, the FCC is generally fairly liberal in allowing and considering late-filed comments.
then why given them your phone number? I don't mean when you order delivery. I would hope they don't phish those numbers. These people probably signed up for some text alert thing. Now they are getting alerts. duh.
Like to each person on their list?
They must of contracted out this advertising and paid per spam message, because no one would think that that would drum up business.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
So you saying this lawsuit is a Liberal Agenda to get revenge on John Schnatter exercising the freedom of speech. By exercising loopholes in laws passed by the Liberal Elite, that are attended to clamp down on good and honest business, to help pave the way to a socialist communist America?
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I don't want the shit that is papa's pizza or the other big 3.
I live in area with lot's of good small chain places.
pizza drivers have to pay for gas / all car repairs out of there own pocket and they get a very low per run rate + sub-mini pay on the road.
Also that topper cuts MPG also papa makes his works pay for uniforms with markup as well.
IANAL, but I suspect this will get thrown out of court.
This sounds like a frivolous lawsuit, and quite possibly one of the worst examples of people using the government to solve their problems. Shunning, shaming, and publicizing this message problem is the proper solution -- hit them in their sales in the marketplace.
So who gets the money? Every single customer who got the spam? The three people who actually sued them? Why should they get "my share" of the money when all the damages weren't done to them?
When I call Verizon to complain about spam and ask for the charges to be dropped because I have to pay for them, they tell me to sign up for a text plan! They debit the charges, but tell me they won't be able to do it next time.
Same with spam phone calls.
I keep calling. It is the only think I can think of to motivate them to make changes. Make it more expensive to manage the problem than to fix it.
Why is it that advertisers think it's acceptable to be rude when asking people to buy their product?!!!
People like that should be locked in an iron coffin with spikes on the inside.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Interesting that Papa Johns was willing to go to this expense and risk these fines when Papa John himself fought Obamacare claiming it would force him to raise each pizza by 14 cents and endanger his entire business.
FUCK YOU you fucking fuck.
The Republicans had from 1992 - 2008 to do something about the enormous goddamned drag the out-of-control healthcare system has on the economy. That's sixteen years . They did SHIT .
Papa John, like many business threatened layoffs/etc due to the rising costs of healthcare under our Natl Healthcare system.
Now, they are attacked by some sleazebag blood sucking parasite of a lawyer..
This is what happens when you go against Obama or his minions..
And the Obamatrons go: BAAAAAAHHHHHHH
"Lets see, someone who actually is running a business is making decisions based on the cost of doing business, so the answer is to call him a moron. Try running a business yourself, it should be fairly easy with Papa Johns making so many bad decisions."
In lots of civilized countries, that are not the 'greatest on earth' pizza delivery guys get full coverage and pension plans, drive with the company's car, don't pay for gas or anything, keep and have to report their tips to the local IRS and get at least the minimum wage everybody else gets.
That way they don't have to deliver drugs and alcohol to minors on the side, also a benefit for the community and the company.
And still the pizza's great and cheap and the owner's house gigantic and his car too.
The problem with opt-out is that you confirm that a real person is reading the spam. You might not get messages from that exact source again, but you may well get on even more spam lists.
If my poor as heck friends are correct, food stamps only work for un-cooked food, so they only get Papa Murphy's pizza.
While it's certainly true that pizza joints are not a "get rich quick" path to success, there is nothing wrong with people who don't like a corporate chain's policies taking their business elsewhere. Later when Papa John's failed marketing and publicity has cost them marketshare, they will have to lower their franchise price, or people will buy other franchises. This is how the free market works, and it's a good thing.
Secondly, it's not a targeted expense that solely affects Papa Johns. Many of their competitors are going to have these same expenses, and the pizzas will get more expensive and the consumers will have to choose: A $12 pie at Stingo's Italiano Pizza, or $12.50 at Papa John's where "we treat employees right." Again we need to trust the free market, that the better employees will switch to the non-cheating pizza places with benefits, and as better employees they'll provide better service.
I'll pay the extra 50 cents for my take-out pizza so that everyone involved gets good healthcare.
Driving Pizza is probably the worst paying job out there.
In addition to paying for gas, and car repairs, also most insurance policies don't cover commercial use of your car, i.e. delivering pizza, so that's extra if you want to be legal.
The Papa can't even afford 14 Cents additional per pizza for employee health insurance.
Even when they are bad they are still good.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
has driven the right wingers even crazier. Expect more of this reality free hysteria from them.
Republican leadership = Idiocracy
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About that criticism of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (otherwise known as Baucuscare, after Senator Max Baucus of Montana, the man who *actually* wrote the law (or rather, it was Sen. Baucus' aides and lobbyists, but at least Baucuscare is less of a misnomer, since laws are not written by the executive branch))
Mr. John Schnatter, CEO of Papa Johns, estimates that the PPACA will cost his company $5 to $8 million annually.
In September, Papa Johns ran a campaign where they gave out two million free pizzas. The cost of these pizzas would be $24 to $32 million, estimated.
In other words, free pizza advertising gimmicks cost about four times as much as providing health care to your employees.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/calebmelby/2012/11/12/breaking-down-centi-millionaire-papa-john-schnatters-obamacare-math/
:(){
In lots of civilized countries, that are not the 'greatest on earth' pizza delivery guys...
Really? Which countries, and which companies are you talking about that deliver pizza?
Peyton should have stuck with 1 million free pizzas.
After pj's opened nearby, my kid wanted to try their pizza. I included my mobile in the online order because we were on our way home - in case delivery arrives before we do. I was completely unprepared for the torrent of messages that has ensued. It took me weeks and many calls to get messages to stop. I only bought their pizza 2 or 3 times since, always in shop, always refusing to provide any details no metter how adamant they were (they want it all btw) and only paying cash.
I promiss my company sends no unwanted pizza related texts.
The owner of Papa John is a Romney supporting douche bag on top of a maker of shit pizzas. I hope they hit him with the highest possible penalty.
In the US, there are more than 500 000 new businesses started every year (sole proprieters, limited partnerships, and such). Want to opt out of all the new businesses? Prepare to wind your way through 1300+ opt out forms and procedures every day of the year for the rest of your life. Then there are the 2/3rds of a million corporations that have been around longer than a year. In your free time you can opt out of those; at 1000/day it should only take 2 years with a few weekends off.
Requiring people to opt out is demonstrably insane.
And the downside is...?
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My favorite part was the denigration of low income workers as "blowing" their money on food. What unconstrained excess and wanton decadence!
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So you're a waffle man!
Now if only that would apply to all phone numbers like landlines. That opt out stuff sure does not work! There should be some feature on your phone service that you would get 50 cents per unwanted calls from companies. That would stop them fast - 500,00 X .50 cents
Monty Python post
Sure we have CAN-SPAM and all the various state level spam laws that spell out the rules advertisers have to abide by, but the huge problem with these laws is that a private individual cannot initiate an action against someone, only the government can sue someone using these laws. Of course the government can't devote resources to chase down all the little spammers (my local car dealership is the worst, I've e-mailed, called and finally stopped by in person in hopes of getting them to take me off their e-mail list) but I still get e-mail from them and there isn't anything I can do about it.
I talked to two different lawyers and was willing to spend my own money to sue them and get them to respect people's wishes to not receive their junk advertising, but both of them told me there was nothing I could do about it. So, yeah, thanks government. If you made these laws actionable by anyone the world would have a lot less spam in it.
obamacare caused this problem
Companies should honor requests for people to be able to opt out of their text messaging programs. I used to work in a call center supporting a major cellular carrier and their devices. The most common problem people called about was text messages they did not want and needed help in stopping. All we could do was educate the customer on how to opt out of the text messaging spam.
This was one year ago. I left and never looked back.
template
printable voucher
Below is a template for petty cash voucher. You can substitute your company name, address, contacts, and logo on the upper portion of the form.
Will pretty much end the company.
---- Booth was a patriot ----