Tampa Bay Rays Class Action Says Baseball Ticket Texts Violate TCPA

Tampa Bay Rays Baseball Ltd. has been hit with a class action lawsuit alleging it sends unsolicited text messages to cell phones without the prior express written consent of the recipient as required by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act was enacted by Congress in 1991 to protect consumers from telemarketing calls and other types of solicitation calls via phone or fax.

The TCPA prohibits certain types of communications such as robocalls, unsolicited text messages, not providing an option to opt out of the communications, calling numbers listed on the National Do Not Call Registry, and other TCPA violations.

Plaintiff James Thomas filed the TCPA class action lawsuit earlier this month, claiming that, in September 2017, he received a text message on his cell phone promoting tickets to Tampa Bay Rays baseball games. He says he received several other promotional text messages regarding Tampa Bay Rays games and events.

“Neither Plaintiff nor the other Class members ever consented in writing, authorized, desired or permitted Defendant to send text messages to their wireless telephones,” the Tampa Bay Rays TCPA class action lawsuit says.

Thomas alleges the Tampa Bay Rays promotional text messages caused harm such as violation of the recipients’ privacy and the aggravation, nuisance and cost that comes along with receiving unwanted text messages.

According to the TCPA class action lawsuit, marketers have sought to use technologies that allow them to send bulk solicitations at low cost. One low-cost option is the use of Short Message Services or SMS messaging, which allows for the transmission and receipt of short text messages to and from wireless telephones.

“Unlike more conventional advertisements, SMS message advertisements can actually cost their recipients money because wireless phone users must pay their wireless service providers either for each text message call they receive or incur a usage allocation deduction to their text messaging plan, regardless of whether the message is authorized,” the Tampa Bay Rays class action lawsuit says.

Because of the increased concern about unwanted text message advertisements, the Federal Communications Commission updated its rules to require senders of text message ads to obtain the recipient’s prior express written consent to receive such communications.

Thomas filed the TCPA class action lawsuit on behalf of himself and a proposed Class of U.S. consumers who received on their wireless telephones sent by or on behalf of the Tampa Bay Rays non-emergency, unsolicited text messages that were sent through the use of an automatic dialing system within the last four years.

The Tampa Bay Rays TCPA class action lawsuit seeks a minimum of $500 in damages for each TCPA violation and an order requiring the Tampa Bay Rays to stop sending text messages without first obtaining the prior express written consent of the recipient.

Thomas is represented by Benjamin W. Raslavich of Kuhn Raslavich PA and by Joseph J. Siprut and Ke Liu of Siprut PC.

The Tampa Bay Rays TCPA Class Action Lawsuit is James Thomas v. Tampa Bay Rays Baseball Ltd., Case No. 8:18-cv-01187-EAK-AEP, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division.

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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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