Talkatone Hit with Text Spam TCPA Class Action Lawsuit

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Talkatone Inc. has been hit with a TCPA class action lawsuit and faces allegations that they sent unsolicited text messages to consumers’ cell phones.

Plaintiffs Michelle Hernandez, Ashley Salinas, John Ramirez and Andre Rufus, all residents of Texas, filed this Talkatone class action lawsuit on Aug. 13, claiming the company violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) by sending text spam to unsuspecting consumers who did not give their express consent to receive such communications.

According to the Talkatone TCPA class action lawsuit:

“In a misguided effort to promote their mobile application (i.e., ‘app’), Defendants engaged in an especially invasive form of marketing: the transmission of unauthorized advertisements in the form of invitational text message calls to the cellular telephones of unwitting consumers throughout the nation. By transmitting these unauthorized text message calls (hereinafter, ‘wireless spam’), Defendants have violated consumers’ statutory rights and have caused consumers actual harm.”

The plaintiffs claim that between July and August 2015, another individual identified as Mr. Hernandez signed up for the Talkatone App twice using his own email and the email address of a Ms. Gonzales. According to the plaintiffs, their cell phone numbers were listed as contacts for either Ms. Gonzales or Mr. Hernandez. When Mr. Hernandez signed up for the Talkatone App, his and Ms. Gonzales’ contacts were automatically uploaded to the Talkatone App without any human intervention, after which the plaintiffs received Talkatone text messages automatically generated and sent by the company’s app.

The Talkatone TCPA class action lawsuit alleges that the subject of the text messages were pre-programmed to automatically accept the list of phone numbers provided by the app, which were automatically uploaded, and to send these computer generated text messages without human intervention to the plaintiffs and other consumers. Because of these features, the plaintiffs claim that Talkatone used an automatic telephone dialing system to send texts to the plaintiffs, thus violating TCPA statutes.

The plaintiffs are seeking to represent a Class of consumers that would include: “All persons in the United States and its territories who received one (1) or more text messages from Defendants which invited the recipient to use the Talkatone App and where there is no evidence the recipient provided prior express consent for Defendants to send such text message(s).”

The plaintiffs of this Talkatone TCPA class action lawsuit are seeking certification of the Class defined above, a judgment award of $1,500 per violation of the TCPA for the plaintiffs and the Class, injunctive relief, payment of plaintiffs’ costs of attorney’s fees, and any other forms of relief deemed fit by the court.

The plaintiffs are represented by Joseph H. Malley of Law Offices of Joseph H. Malley PC, David C. Parisi of Parisi & Havens LLP, and Ethan Preston of Preston Law Offices.

The Talkatone TCPA Class Action Lawsuit is Hernandez, et al., v. Talkatone Inc., Case No. 5:15-cv-03703, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Join a Free TCPA Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you were contacted on your cell phone by a company via an unsolicited text message (text spam) or prerecorded voice message (robocall), you may be eligible for compensation under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Visit the Text Message Spam, Unwanted Cell Phone Calls TCPA Class Action Lawsuit Settlement Investigation to find out if you qualify.