According to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), businesses are prohibited from sending telemarketing calls, texts or faxes to anybody without their prior consent. This act ensures privacy of consumers and was brought into action to curb the issue of unwanted texts and telemarketing calls that infringe upon privacy and cause inconvenience.
However, a car dealership spam text has violated the TCPA once again. A resident of Florida has filed a class action lawsuit against a car dealership of the state and accuses it of violating the TCPA by sending unwanted car dealership spam texts without the receivers’ consent. The car dealership spam text class action lawsuit was filed by Daryl Teblum again Germain on Davis LLC, also known as Germain Honda of Naples. Teblum claims that he received a text message from the car dealership asking him whether he wanted to purchase a vehicle. Allegedly, the message was sent to him on May 2, 2019, without his consent.
What was in the car dealership spam text message?
Teblum informs that the spam message said-“Germain Honda of Naples: Daryl — are you still interested in the CR-V — Louise Castro.” Teblum further states that he did reply to the text by sending a “STOP” message in response. Teblum asserts that the message was spam as it intended to encourage him to business with the car dealership company. He says that the car dealership spam text violates the Telephone Consumer Protection Act as the message was sent to him without his consent.
Daryl claims that at no point did he give the car dealership his consent to receive such messages and further even withdrew his consent by sending them a message which read “STOP”.
Car dealership spam text class action lawsuit
According to the car dealership spam text class action lawsuit, the company allegedly sent those spam messages to many people which is prohibited under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Moreover, the spam message was sent via a long code to imitate the numbers by which many individuals receive messages. Teblum asserts that the message he received was also sent to a number of other people and the general nature of the message was to encourage individuals to do business with the car dealership company. The message he received from Germain on Davis LLC clearly showed that it was intended for many people and after communicating with his acquaintances and associates, he realized that he was not the only one to receive the car dealership spam text messages. A number of individuals had been victims of the violation of their rights under the TCPA and it is when Daryl took this issue to court that the other people also expressed the inconvenience they had been through because of the spam messages the Honda dealership company sent to them. If you receive any spam messages without your consent, contact an attorney at Shamis And Gentile, P.A. to seek help with the violation of your rights.
Teblum continues to further elaborate on the invasion of his privacy and says it was easy to make out that the message was automated as the number had an auto-reply system that responded to the message he sent in response to the spam message he received. In response to the “STOP” message he sent, he received a message that said – “You have successfully been removed from Germain Honda of Naples text messages.” The German Honda car dealership class action lawsuit emphasizes that no human intervention is required to complete the latter process. The interaction that Teblum had with the system is carried out in an automated fashion.
The violation does affect people
Daryl confirms that along with him, many of his colleagues and associates received similar car dealership spam texts without their consent. People received messages that intended to encourage people to do business with the car dealership. However, the basic problem is that people received the unwanted messages without their consent, thus, leading to the violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
Teblum further goes on to not that these messages caused a lot of inconvenience to the receivers as it occupied unnecessary space in their phones and their mobile plans. Receiving these unwanted messages also stated that the privacy of consumers is least respected and what matters the most to the company was their own profit. These car dealership spam texts not only invaded privacy, but also showed up as a threat to the basic moral rights of receiving telecommunication calls and texts only after giving your consent.
The Florida Car Dealership Spam Text Class Action Lawsuit is Case No. 2:19-cv-00440-SPC-NPM, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
