Florida Woman Seeks $5 Million in Text Message Advertising Lawsuit

A Florida woman has a filed a text message advertising lawsuit against Nasty Gal, accusing the clothing company of violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

Plaintiff Amanda Defranks is seeking actual and statutory damages of more than $5 million plus injunctive relief to keep Nasty Gal from continuing to violate federal telemarketing laws.

The TCPA is a consumer protection act that disallows phone calls or text messages to be sent to cell phones through the use of an autodialing machine, or robocall, unless the user has given the business prior written consent to do so. Even if the consumer has been a customer of the business, the business cannot use that relationship as an excuse to send advertising or spam texts.

Nasty Gal is an e-commerce clothing and jewelry company founded in 2006. In November 2016, Nasty Gal filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and has faced lawsuits filed by designers who alleged copyright infringement of their jewelry designs. The company also has faced lawsuits alleging employees were laid off right before going on maternity leave.

Text Message Advertising Lawsuit Allegations

Defranks’ complaint says she received telemarketing text messages from Nasty Gal on May 24, 2019 and May 27, 2019. Her cell phone displayed the text messages came from a five-digit short code number used by Nasty Girl.

According to the text message lawsuit, the messages’ “impersonal and generic nature” demonstrated the texts were sent using an automated dialing system (ATDS).

In addition, text messages sent by any five-digit short code allows Nasty Gal and other businesses to send SMS text messages to thousands of cell phones at once, which allegedly could deceive recipients into thinking the text messages were personalized and sent by an individual human from a real phone.

Nasty Gal is accused of willfully and knowingly violating TCPA because the company “knew that it did not have prior express consent to make these calls and knew or should have known that it was using equipment that constituted an automatic telephone dialing system.”

Defranks is seeking class action status on the lawsuit because of the possibility there could be thousands of other plaintiffs who received identical unsolicited text messages.

Text Message Advertising Lawsuits Include Similar Allegations

Many text message advertisers have faced similar TCPA lawsuits by taking advantage of technology that allows them to reach thousands of people quickly, but illegally if prior permission has not been provided.

Earlier this year, customers of Hot Topic requested approval of a $2.9 million TCPA lawsuit settlement regarding they received unsolicited promotional text messages from the retailer.

In 2018, Western Union Company settled a TCPA class action lawsuit for $8.5 million after nearly 742,000 class members alleged they had received unwanted text messages.

Plaintiffs in TCPA lawsuits often allege their cell phone numbers are listed on the Do Not Call registry, but they continue to receive unsolicited texts and calls from clothing companies, banks, automotive dealerships and other retailers trying to market their wares.

The Text Message Advertising Lawsuit is Amanda Defranks v. Nastygal.com USA Inc., Case No. 1:19-cv-23028-XXXX in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Join a Free Text Message Coupon Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you have received coupons or sales advertisements in a text message from a restaurant or clothing retailer and your phone number is registered with the National Do Not Call registry, you may be entitled to compensation.

UPDATE: July 2020, the Nasty Gal text message class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim. 

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