Papa Murphy’s Settles Advertising Text Class Action Lawsuit for $22.6M

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Papa Murphy’s will settle a spam text class action lawsuit for $22.6 million in cash and voucher payments.

This week, Papa Murphy’s, a company famous for its “take and bake” pizzas, reached a settlement over a class action lawsuit claiming it violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by sending telemarketing texts to consumers.

The Papa Murphy’s class action settlement reached with plaintiffs John Lennartson, Rita Andrews, Cassie Asleson, and Susan Shay Nohr determined that Papa Murphy’s would pay consumers $11.3 million in cash payments and another $11.3 million in vouchers redeemable for Papa Murphy’s products.

The Papa Murphy’s customers expressed approval of the settlement, stating that “a preliminary review of the terms of the proposed settlement shows that it confers a subtle benefit to the class.”

They go on to state that the proposed Papa Murphy’s text advertising class action settlement was reached after months of mediated negotiations, representing “hard-fought adversarial negotiations between the parties.”

The plaintiffs initially filed the Papa Murphy’s text message class action lawsuit in May 2015, claiming that the company’s practice of sending text messages to consumers without their prior, written, express consent constituted a violation of the TCPA.

Lennartson states that on April 6, 2015, he received a text from the abbreviated telephone number, or SMS short code, “90421.” He claims that Papa Murphy’s operated this short code, and used it to send mass text messages to Lennartson and other consumers.

Allegedly, the text message said “Papa Murphy’s: Today only 4/6/15. A Big Deal for the Big Game! Get a $10 Lg 5-Meat Stuffed Pizza. Valid @ participating Stores. Msg & Data Rates May Apply. STOP to end.”

Lennartson goes on to claim that he then received multiple text message advertisements from Papa Murphy’s after the initial message, and that these came from the same “90421” short code, as well as from other, similar short codes.

The plaintiff says that the text messages were sent to many consumers at once, using an autodialer, a device that dials multiple numbers at once to place calls or text messages. He alleges that the TCPA prohibits companies from sending mass texts to consumers and from sending consumers messages and calls made by an autodialer, so Papa Murphy’s text advertisements constituted a violation of the TCPA.

The Papa Murphy’s TCPA violation class action lawsuit sought $500 in statutory damages for each affected consumer, as well as an award of up to $1,500 for each willful violation of the TCPA, an award that is supported by the terms of the TCPA’s protections.

In January 2016, Papa Murphy’s moved to dismiss the Papa Murphy’s unwanted text message class action lawsuit, but was unsuccessful. The court did point to a previous ruling in agreeing with the company that consumers cannot sue for mere technical violations, but the court did allow for consumers to claim statutory violations of the TCPA to establish standing in similar telemarketing suits.

In 2017, the Papa Murphy’s telemarketing class action lawsuit went through several rounds of amendments, and the mediations that led to the current proposed settlement.

The plaintiffs are represented by Mark A. Griffin and Karin B. Swope of Keller Rohrback LLP, and June P. Hoidal and Behdad C. Sadeghi of Zimmerman Reed LLP.

The Papa Murphy’s Text Messages Class Action Lawsuit is John Lennartson, et al. v. Papa Murphy’s Holdings Inc., et al., Case No. 3:15-cv-05307-RBL, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington at Tacoma.

UPDATE: June 2018, the Papa Murphy’s unwanted text messages class action settlement is now open.Click here to file a claim.

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