AMC Class Action Says Text Message Campaign Violates Federal Law

An Illinois man says the AMC movie theater company has been sending text messages to consumers without their consent, in violation of federal law.

Plaintiff Caleb Baldwin says American Multi-Cinema Inc., doing business as AMC, has been running an unlawful text message-based advertising campaign.

He claims that by failing to get consent from the recipients of these AMC text messages, the campaign runs afoul of the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or TCPA.

The TCPA restricts the use of automatic equipment in various types of telemarketing. Generally, a marketer is prohibited from using an automatic dialing mechanism to send SMS text messages to a person who has not given that marketer prior express consent to be contacted that way.

The act allows the recipients of such text spam to bring a civil TCPA lawsuit. Successful plaintiffs may be entitled to statutory damages of $500 or more for each text message that violates the TCPA.

According to Baldwin’s AMC text message class action lawsuit, the company began an aggressive marketing campaign in 2011 based on SMS text messaging.

The company licensed the “short code” numbers 242424 and 272727 for use in this campaign. Customers were allegedly offered coupons and discounts in exchange for sending their own text messages to these short codes.

But Baldwin believes AMC used this campaign to collect customers’ mobile phone numbers for use in future marketing. He alleges AMC then sent massive amounts of unsolicited text messages using equipment capable of storing and automatically dialing mobile phone numbers.

Baldwin says AMC failed to get prior express consent from the message recipients before sending these text messages – making every such AMC text message a violation of the TCPA.

His own experience with this campaign began in 2016. Baldwin says he texted “AMC” to 272727. He then received a text message prompting him to reply with “Y” to receive text messages from AMC theaters. Baldwin says he texted back with a “Y.”

Weeks later, he started receiving promotional texts for movies at AMC theaters. The promotions did not offer any coupon or discount but instead were soliciting him to buy a ticket at full price, he claims.

He quotes complaints about these AMC text messages that recipients have posted in online forums. One commenter whose phone service plan afforded him only a limited allotment of text messages was concerned AMC might use them all up.

Apparently, Baldwin’s AMC text message class action lawsuit is not the first time the company has been sued for TCPA violations. He says AMC was facing a TCPA lawsuit in a Minnesota federal court as recently as 2015.

Baldwin seeks to represent a plaintiff Class consisting of all persons in the U.S. who were sent a “non-emergency” AMC text message on their mobile phone within four years preceding the filing of this action.

He is asking the court to order AMC to stop sending text messages without the prior express consent of the recipient. He also seeks an award of statutory damages, attorneys’ fees, and costs of litigation.

Baldwin’s attorneys are Katrina Carroll, Kyle A. Shamberg and Ismael T. Salam of Lite DePalma Greenberg LLC.

The AMC Text Message Spam Class Action Lawsuit is Caleb Baldwin v. American Multi-Cinema Inc., Case No. 1:17-cv-00848, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

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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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