Class Action Lawsuit Over Taxi Magic Text Messages is Certified

A federal judge in Washington has certified a class action lawsuit against Orange Cab Co. Inc. and RideCharge Inc., owner of the Taxi Magic smartphone app, that alleges the companies sent unwanted advertising text messages to customers without prior consent, a violation of state and federal law.

U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik granted the motion for class certification because many of the plaintiff were able to present proof of the unwanted taxi text messages, as well as show that they had not given any prior consent. Lead plaintiff Torrey Gragg alleges these text messages were sent in violation of Washington’s Commercial Electronic Mail Act, which is similar to the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

RideCharge and Orange Cab had previously tried to dismiss the text message class action lawsuit by trying to argue that each of the plaintiffs they had sent messages to had given them prior consent. This was proven wrong based on the time and date of the messages the plaintiffs had received.

Therefore, Judge Lasnik declared that all Washington Orange Cab customers who were sent at least one commercial text message from RideCharge to their cellphones without prior consent are eligible to join the illegal text messaging class action lawsuit.

Overview of the Text Spam Class Action Lawsuit

According to court documents, Gragg first sued Orange Cab and RideCharge in March 2012; his case was moved to the federal court the following month.  In February, Judge Lasnik trimmed the Taxi Magic class action lawsuit to remove the claim that the text messages were sent in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). Judge Lasnik stated that this charge did not hold up because the system RideCharge used to send the texts did not have the capacity to store or produce phone calls to be made at random.

In February 2012, Gragg had arranged to get a taxi through Orange Cab, and had received a text message from the company the following day with information including an invitation to download Taxi Magic. Gragg states that he did not provide consent to receive the text message, and claims that the defendants had sent thousands of similar unwanted messages to consumers in Washington and throughout the United States.

Due to the nature of the charges, Judge Lasnik allowed the claim of violating Washington’s Commercial Electronic Mail Act to stand because the plaintiffs sufficiently proved they had not consented nor wanted the messages they had received from the defendant.  The class action lawsuit also stated that the plaintiffs had no option to register for a ‘do-not-call registry’ or opt out of not receiving any more messages.

However, RideShare and Orange Cab both argued that each of the plaintiffs had given their consent to revise the messages, but could not provide proof to verify this statement. However, the companies argued that they could not have sent unwanted messages to the plaintiffs because of the way TaxiMagic registers customers.

This taxi text message class action lawsuit is Torrey Gragg, et al. v. Orange Cab Co. Inc., et al., Case No. 2:12-cv-00576, in the U.S. District Court of Western Washington.

If you received an unwanted text message or cellphone call, you may be entitled to compensation under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. See if you qualify now at the Text Message Spam Cellphone TCPA Class Action Lawsuit Investigation.