Lyft Class Action Says Former Drivers Receiving Unwanted Texts

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The ride-hailing company Lyft has been hit with a class action lawsuit alleging it contacts former drivers via text without permission.

Lead plaintiff Anthony Oliver says that he and other former Lyft drivers have been subject to a barrage of unwanted text messages promoting the ride-hailing service.

Oliver alleges that the messages are aggravating and a waste of his and other former drivers’ time.

The plaintiff, a Georgia resident, claims that Lyft “wrongfully terminated” his status as a driver in 2018.

Despite the change in his status, Oliver says that he has continued to receive texts from Lyft, “including text messages about local Lyft sponsored events and other messages promoting Lyft’s mobile application.”

“In a misguided effort to promote its ride-sharing service to former drivers, Lyft, an operator of a nationwide ride-sharing network, engaged in an invasive and unlawful form of outreach through the transmission of unauthorized text message calls to the cellular telephones of consumers throughout the nation,” contends the Lyft class action lawsuit.

Oliver alleges that even after he attempted to opt out of the messages on several occasions, he continued to receive unwanted texts from Lyft.

Frustratingly, the messages reportedly touted ways he could keep his ratings up as a Lyft driver.

“Defendant fails to honor requests to discontinue such text message calls and routinely sends unauthorized text messages to cell phones of former drivers who had revoked their consent to be sent messages by Defendant,” alleges the Lyft class action lawsuit.

In addition to wasting time and cell phone data, the plaintiff further argues that the unwanted Lyft text messages violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or TCPA.

The TCPA is a federal law that was enacted by Congress in 1991 to protect consumers from aggressive telemarketing communications tying up phone lines and disturbing phone owners during their personal time. The Act was extended to include text communications and carries steep fines of up to $1,500 per contact.

According to the Lyft class action lawsuit, not only did Lyft send unwanted text messages to Oliver and other former drivers, it did so using an automatic telephone dialing system, or ATDS – a further violation of the TCPA.

“The unauthorized text messages received by Plaintiff contained generic content regarding Defendant’s mobile application and were automatically distributed by Defendant,” alleges the Lyft texts class action lawsuit.

The Lyft class action lawsuit seeks to represent a nationwide Class of former Lyft drivers who, within the past four years, received an unwanted text from Lyft after they were no longer authorized to drive for the company, and continued to receive messages even after attempting to opt out of the communications.

The plaintiff is seeking statutory damages of up to $1,500 per alleged violation of the TCPA, along with a court order requiring Lyft to come into compliance with the consumer protection law.

Oliver is represented by Edwin I. Aimufua of the Law Offices of Edwin I. Aimufua.

The Lyft Unwanted Text Messages Class Action Lawsuit is Oliver v. Lyft Inc., Case No. 3:19-cv-01488, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division.

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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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