Facebook Class Action Says Birthday Reminder Texts Violate TCPA

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Facebook Inc. faces a class action lawsuit alleging it sends unauthorized birthday reminder text messages to Facebook users in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

According to the Facebook TCPA class action lawsuit, which was filed Oct. 3 in California federal court, the birthday reminder text messages state: “Today is [Facebook friend’s] birthday. Reply to post a wish on his timeline or reply with 1 to post ‘Happy Birthday!’”

The TCPA prohibits the use of automatic telephone dialing systems to make phone calls or send text messages to consumers’ cell phones without their prior express consent.

Plaintiff James Meyers of California alleges he received a Facebook reminder birthday text message on June 14, 2016. According to the Facebook TCPA class action lawsuit, Meyers never provided his consent for Facebook to send him text messages.

Meyers claims that Facebook sends unsolicited birthday texts to its users and to third parties. Although consumers are not required to provide their cell phone numbers to Facebook, Facebook often gathers that information from other sources, according to the TCPA class action lawsuit.

Facebook uses an automatic telephone dialing system to send “thousands to tens of thousands” of unsolicited birthday reminder text messages to individuals. According to the Facebook TCPA class action lawsuit, Facebook sends these messages to increase user engagement and increase its revenue. Meyers claims that Facebook “negligently, knowingly, and willfully” transmitted these birthday text messages to consumers without their express consent, in violation of the TCPA.

“Facebook has caused actual concrete harm to Plaintiff and the Class members, because such individuals have been subjected to invasion of privacy, unwanted/intrusive text messages, have been required to pay cell phone service providers for unwanted text messages, lost use of their cell at the time of receiving the unwanted text message, wasted time on receipt of and reading of the unwanted text messages, and have been subjected to increased electricity charges from the receipt of unwanted text messages,” the Facebook birthday text message class action lawsuit states.

Meyers filed the Facebook class action lawsuit on behalf of himself and a proposed Class of consumers in the United States who received at least one birthday reminder text message without their consent from Facebook that was made with an automatic dialing system.

The Facebook TCPA class action lawsuit seeks $500 in statutory damages for every text message that was sent by Facebook in violation of the TCPA, and $1,500 for each text message that was sent in willful and/or knowing violation of the TCPA.

Meyers also seeks an injunction requiring Facebook to stop sending birthday reminder text messages to consumers who did not provide their consent to receive such communications.

The plaintiff is represented by L. Timothy Fisher and Scott A. Bursor of Bursor & Fisher PA and Reuben D. Nathan of Nathan & Associates APC.

The Facebook Birthday Reminder Text Message Class Action Lawsuit is James Meyers v. Facebook Inc., Case No. 5:17-cv-02029, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

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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.

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