Cubamax Class Action Claims Advertising Travel Texts Violate TCPA

A Cuba-oriented travel agency has allegedly been sending unsolicited advertising travel texts to consumers, prompting a Florida man to file a class action lawsuit claiming violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

Plaintiff Stephane Poirier recently filed the Cuba texts class action lawsuit against Cubamax Travel Inc. alleging that the travel agency violated federal law by sending unsolicited text messages using an automatic telephone dialing system.

On May 21, Poirier reportedly received an unsolicited text marketing Cubamax services in Spanish. Poirier referenced the Cubamax website to confirm the sender and claims he never consented to receiving text messages from the travel agency.

In his Cubamax travel texts class action, Poirier argues that he sustained damages from the unsolicited text messages and is entitled to compensation.

“Defendant’s unsolicited text messages caused plaintiff actual harm, including invasion of his privacy, aggravation, annoyance, intrusion on seclusion, trespass and conversion,” Poirier’s Cuba texts class action lawsuit states. “Defendant’s text messages also inconvenienced plaintiff and caused disruption to his daily life.”

Poirier claims that the Cuba texts violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The TCPA protects consumers from unwanted calls and texts that they have not expressly consented to.

Specifically, the Act prohibits robocalls, unsolicited calls or texts, calling numbers on the Do Not Call Registry, and more. Consumers who are subject to TCPA violations may be eligible to file a lawsuit and recover between $500 and $1,500 per violation.

“Defendant has, therefore, violated the TCPA by using an automatic telephone dialing system to make non-emergency telephone calls to the cell phones of Plaintiff and the other members of the putative Class without their prior express written consent,” the Cubamax travel texts class action claims.

“Defendant knew that it did not have prior express consent to make these calls, and knew or should have known that it was using equipment that at constituted an automatic telephone dialing system. The violations were therefore willful or knowing.”

Originally, the TCPA only covered phone calls but recent changes in regulation have expanded protections to include text messages. In 2009, a Ninth Circuit ruling determined that consumers are protected from text message abuses in the same way that they are protected from calls.

In 2012, the Federal Communications affirmed this decision by issuing an order increasing restrictions to require “prior express written consent” to place calls. Poirier claims that these two decisions combined protect him and other consumers from harassing marketing texts such as Cubamax’s Cuba texts.

Poirier seek to represent a Class of consumer who have received an unsolicited text from Cubamax within the last four years. The Cuba texts class action seeks actual damages, statutory damages of $1,500 per violation, court costs, and attorneys’ fees.

The plaintiff also seeks injunctive relief prohibiting Cubamax from sending further Cuba advertising texts to him and other consumers using an automated dialing system.

Poirier is represented by Andrew J.Shamis of Shamis & Gentile PA.

The Cubamax Advertising Travel Texts Class Action Lawsuit is Poirier v. Cubamax Travel Inc., Case No. 1:18­-cv-­23240, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

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

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.

GET A FREE CASE EVALUATION NOW