Airline Contractor Text Spam Class Action Lawsuit Is Appealed

An airline consumer asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to revive her proposed airline TCPA text spam class action lawsuit on Oct. 20, claiming that the lower court’s ruling to dismiss the text spam lawsuit was based on its incorrect conclusion that she gave consent to be contacted by an airline contractor by simply providing her personal number when booking a flight.

Plaintiff Shaya Baird originally filed this TCPA class action lawsuit against Sabre Inc., a travel technology contractor, alleging she received a text message from the contractor three weeks after booking a flight through Hawaiian Airlines.

The alleged text message asked Baird if she would like to receive flight notifications, a message to which she didn’t respond. Sabre did not send any messages besides this initial text.

In January, this airline text spam class action lawsuit was dismissed by a California federal judge who ruled that Baird had in fact given permission to be contacted via text message by providing her number on the booking form. The judge determined that this was a voluntary action on Baird’s part as she could have decided not to book her flight through Hawaiian Airlines.

However, last Monday, Baird fought back claiming that she had no other choice but to provide her cell phone number. According to the TCPA text spam class action lawsuit, Hawaiian Airlines indicated that a phone number was considered “required information” needed “by the TSA ‘for the purposes of watch list screening’ under authority of ‘the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention act of 2004.’”

Baird further alleges that once she supplied her personal phone number, she was never given an opportunity by Sabre to indicate that she did not want to receive text messages from the contractor to her number.

Baird disputes the lower court’s interpretation of “express consent,” arguing that this TCPA term can only be applied to a text spam class action lawsuit when express consent is clearly and unmistakably stated to the consumer.

The Airline TCPA Text Spam Class Action Lawsuit is Shaya Baird v. Sabre Inc., et al., Case No. 14-55293, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

What is The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)?

In the early 1990s, Congress passed the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to limit telephone soliciting and marketing, especially when companies or solicitors employ automated telephone dialing systems (robocalls) to contact consumers. These automated dialing systems can store a list of numbers or randomly generate phone numbers to leave pre-recorded messages or to send text spam to unsuspecting consumers.

According to the Federal Communications Commission’s website: “The TCPA and the FCC’s rules ban many text messages sent to a mobile phone using an autodialer. These texts are banned unless (1) you previously gave consent to receive the message or (2) the message is sent for emergency purposes. This ban applies even if you have not placed your mobile phone number on the national Do-Not-Call list of numbers telemarketers must not call.”

Sabre is not the only business that has been hit with a TCPA lawsuit for allegedly sending unsolicited text spam messages to consumers without prior express consent. Many businesses, banks, and other entities who employ automated dialers to call consumers without their expressed consent are facing potential TCPA class action lawsuits or individual TCPA text spam lawsuits.

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.

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