Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.
Purple Lotus, a California cannabis dispensary, has been accused of “aggressive unsolicited” telemarketing in a nationwide class action lawsuit filed in federal court this week.
Lead plaintiff, Kentucky resident Justin Smith, says that he and thousands of other consumers across the country have been subjected to “aggressive unsolicited marketing” by defendant Purple Lotus. The lawsuit accuses the company of harassing Smith and other consumers with unwanted text messages and also violating federal consumer protection law.
Smith says he has been subjected to dozens of unwanted telemarketing text messages over the past two years from Purple Lotus advertising cannabis products. The class action lawsuit alleges that the unwanted messages was a nuisance, taking time out of Smith’s day to review and manage.
“Defendant’s unsolicited text messages caused Plaintiff actual harm, including invasion of his privacy, aggravation, annoyance, intrusion on seclusion, trespass, and conversion. Defendant’s text messages also inconvenienced Plaintiff and caused disruption to his daily life,” the lawsuit asserts.
The class action lawsuit goes on to point out that Purple Lotus’s marketing activities violate a federal law enacted to protect consumers from aggressive telemarketing – the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). Under the TCPA, marketers are prohibited from contacting consumers without their prior, express consent.
In addition, the law limits the use of certain telemarketing technology, including automatic dialing software and prerecorded messages. The law encompasses not only traditional phone calls, but text messages as well.
Indeed, the class action lawsuit claims that Purple Lotus used both automatic dialing software and prerecorded messages in its marketing to Smith and thousands of other consumers across the nation.
“Defendant utilized a combination of hardware and software systems to send the text messages at issue in this case,” explains the lawsuit. “The systems utilized by Defendant have the capacity to store telephone numbers using a random or sequential number generator, and to dial such numbers from a list without human intervention.”
Violations of the TCPA can lead to steep fines for marketers. Statutory damages of between $500 and $1,500 per message sent in violation of the law can be assessed. Indeed, the class action is seeking these fines to be assessed against Purple Lotus, along with a court order stopping the dispensary’s telemarketing activities.
Have you gotten telemarketing messages from Purple Lotus or another cannabis dispensary? Tell us about your experience in the comment section below!
The lead plaintiff is represented by Scott Edelsberg of Edelsberg Law, P.A., and Joshua Moyer of Shamis Gentile, P.A.
The Purple Lotus TCPA Class Action Lawsuit is Smith v. VMK, Inc., Case No. 5:21-cv-02200, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:
3 thoughts onClass Action Lawsuit Accuses Dispensary of Aggressive, Illegal Telemarketing
I have gotten so many texts from them over the years, and every time I send STOP, they say “You have been successfully unsubscribed” and then text me again from another number in a matter of weeks. SO OVER THIS.
yes I get call all the time
Yes I get call all the time from cannabis people a lot. I was put on the Do Not call list They use another number & another number on & on