Plaintiffs Seek Class Certification in Warcraft Text Message Alerts Class Action

Plaintiffs in a TCPA class action recently requested that a federal judge certify four Classes of consumers who allegedly received promotional Warcraft text message alerts without consenting to them.

On July 27, plaintiffs Charlie Fitzgerald, Ophelia Parker, and Joseph Naso filed a motion in federal court, asking a judge to certify four Classes of individuals who allegedly received Warcraft text message alerts. Of the proposed Classes:

• The first Class is a general group of individuals who received World of Warcraft text messages from an automated system without consenting to receiving them.
• The second Class is the same individuals whose numbers are a part of the Do Not Call Registry.
• The third Class consists of individuals who received Warcraft text message alerts between the hours of 8 p.m. and 9 a.m., hours which federal law restricts calls or texts.
• The fourth and final Class is individuals who received multiple Warcraft text message alerts.

The “Defendants’ activities must not be condoned. Predatory and abusive telemarketing practices like those at issue here are nothing less than a ‘scourge’ on our modern, technologically-dependent society,” the plaintiffs stated. “This case is quintessentially suitable for class action treatment and plaintiffs respectfully submit that it should be certified as such.”

TCPA and Consumer Protection

The plaintiffs originally filed the lawsuit in June 2016, alleging that consumers were receiving Warcraft text message alerts advertising and promoting the new “Warcraft” movie. The class action named numerous companies involved in the production and advertisement of the film, including Universal Pictures, Legend Pictures LLC, and Handstack PBC, a text messaging marketing company.

Universal has denied that their actions are in violation of any law. The company claims that many potential members of the Classes are subscribers to Universal news and consented to receiving Warcraft text message alerts.

“Plaintiffs and other putative class members did not revoke their consent to be contacted prior to the initiation of the Warcraft messaging campaign, nor did Universal know or have reason to know of any such revocation,” Universal said.

Plaintiffs argue that Universal’s alleged actions highlight the need for further regulations and exemplifies the way that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) protects consumers.

“In light of the daily national discussion about privacy and the way our data is used, the defendants’ alleged practices in this case stand out as a quintessential example of the very concerns that the TCPA was designed to protect,” said plaintiff counsel in an email statement to Law360.

“This isn’t just a matter of a scheme to spam a million people so large corporations could make money,” counsel added. “That’s bad enough. Even worse, as described in the complaint, this spam campaign disregarded that individuals registered on the Do-Not-Call registry and many were spammed early in the morning and late at night. In this case, all reasonable restrictions were ignored.”

The Warcraft Text Message Alerts Class Action Lawsuit is Fitzgerald et al. v. Universal Pictures et al., Case No. 6:16-cv-01193, in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

UPDATE: April 2019, the Warcraft text message class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim. 

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