Text Message Suit Leads to $8.7M TCPA Settlement with Smartphone Leasing Company

A TCPA settlement has been obtained in a case in which the plaintiffs argued they had received nuisance texts from Smartpay Leasing.

According to those who brought the lawsuit, customers were not able to easily opt out of the program and instead were subjected to multiple spam text messages from the leasing company in alleged violation of the 1991 Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

The TCPA settlement involves an $8.7 million deal that will be distributed among the more than 23,000 class members who claimed they didn’t want the text messages and had no way to stop them. The judge issued his preliminary approval of the TCPA settlement on Sept. 13 based on the consumer class already certified in June.

Under the terms of the agreement, every Class Member included in the settlement would receive approximately $375, but that does not include the monetary deductions taken out for litigation expenses and attorney’s fees.

The class includes all people in the United States who received a text message from Smartpay Leasing and their vendor Twilio Inc. going as far back as Sept. 29, 2015, and through June 13, 2017, even after the consumer sent the word “stop” back in an effort to discontinue the messages.

Named plaintiff Shawn Esparza stated in the lawsuit that she ended her mobile phone lease through Smartpay in 2016, but still got text messages from the company after that point on a new phone. The complaint she filed as lead plaintiff says that she asked for the messages to stop but continued to get them anyways, an experience she argues also affected other consumers.

The TCPA lawsuit was filed in June of 2017 with arguments made by the plaintiff that the company was responsible will willful and negligent TCPA violations. The order approving the TCPA settlement states that Smartpay still denies those classwide allegations.

Those consumers who received these text messages and were unable to end the promotions even after texting back “Stop” should now prepare to file their claim in order to receive their portion from the settlement fund. Those leftover funds will go to other class members or could be turned over to a trade association that promotes TCPA compliant practices known as CTIA.

The TCPA was created due to the response from constituents who were reporting increasing concerns about harassing faxes and phone calls to their political representatives. The law both explains what companies cannot do and empowers consumers with the ability to bring legal action when it can be shown that a company has violated the law.

One of the components of the TCPA is that companies have to give consumers a chance to opt out of receiving unwanted promotions. When a consumer sends the “Stop” message, the company is responsible for removing that person from their contact list and ending any further messages. According to the lawsuit mentioned above and others like it, not all companies comply with this aspect of the law and are therefore exposed to potential litigation.

The Smartpay Leasing Class Action Lawsuit is Esparza v. Smartpay Leasing Inc., Case No. 3:17-cv-03421, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: October 2019, the SmartPay class action settlement is now open. Click here to learn more.

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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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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.