Has Trulieve Florida Been Leaving You Spam Text Messages?

A Tennessee man has filed a class action lawsuit against a Florida medical marijuana dispensary over a series of unwanted promotional text messages he said were inconvenient and detrimental to his phone – and a violation of federal consumer protection law.

Mats J. filed the case on Dec. 9, 2019, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, against Trulieve Inc., one of the Sunshine State’s 22 licensed medical marijuana operators. In it, Mats claims Trulieve’s spam texts “resulted in the invasion of privacy, harassment, aggravation, and disruption of the daily life of thousands of individuals.”

He is seeking $1,500 in damages per message and estimates that when a full Class of fellow plaintiffs is counted the total damages could top $5 million, according to the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

Unwanted Trulieve Text Alerts

According to the 15-page complaint against Trulieve Florida, Mats is suing over “multiple” unsolicited text messages he received in October and November 2019. The court papers don’t specify the total number of messages or explain how Trulieve got Mats’s phone number, but the lawsuit says he never agreed to receive text messages from the company.

The complaint includes screenshots of two unwanted messages Trulieve purportedly sent him. One says “Hello Trulievers! Buy 2 Get 1 Free on TruClear today. Stackable with one 10% off discount for Vets, Snap or Trulievers. Visit www.trulieve.com/shop/concentrates.” The other says “Happy Flower Friday Trulievers! Roll into the weekend with our restock of prerolls and flower. Doors open at 10 am. Visit www.trulieve.com. Have a great day!” Both constitute telemarketing because they are encouraging future purchases, the lawsuit says.

Businesses, especially those that are expanding, are increasingly turning to direct text message marketing to engage customers, industry experts say. Business.com reports that studies show text messages are effective at driving sales, likely because today’s consumers spend more time on smart phones than ever before and find it a convenient way to make purchases.

Many of Florida’s medical marijuana dispensaries use text messages to engage with customers and promote their products, according to News4Jax in Jacksonville, Fla.

On the day Mats’s filed his lawsuit, Trulieve took to Twitter to urge followers to sign up for alerts from the dispensary, according to Miami New Times.

TCPA Act Violation

Regardless of the popularity of text message marketing, the lawsuit against Trulieve Florida says the company was wrong to send unsolicited messages and in doing so it violated the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act or TCPA.

Congress enacted the TCPA in 1991 and assigned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to enforce it. The goal of the TCPA is to protect consumers from being harassed by intrusive and unwanted advertising or solicitation calls, texts, or faxes. The TCPA restricts the use of automatic telephone dialing systems, artificial or prerecorded voice messages and text messages, and requires entities making telephone solicitations to maintain do-not-call lists.

Companies are required to abide by the National Do-Not-Call Registry as well as their own internal lists of consumers who have withdrawn consent to be contacted. Consumers who have registered their numbers with the national list are supposed to be free from solicitation calls, but not every business abides by the rules.

In addition to prohibiting solicitors from using pre-recorded or pre-written messages, the law also prohibits telemarketers from contacting consumers before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. Callers must also identify themselves and the entity they represent.

In 2012, the FCC revised its rules to “require telemarketers to obtain prior express written consent from consumers before robocalling or texting them … and to require telemarketers to provide an automated, interactive ‘opt-out’ mechanism … so consumers can immediately tell the telemarketer to stop calling,” the FCC’s guidelines on the TCPA  state.

But in the complaint filed against Trulieve, Mats’s lawyers said their client never gave the marijuana seller permission to contact him through an automatic telephone dialing system.

How to Stop Intrusive Calls or Texts

If you have registered your phone number with the National Do-Not-Call Registry and continue to receive unsolicited phone calls, texts, or ringless voicemails from Trulieve Florida or another company, you may be able to take further action. Many cell phones and cell phone providers offer services to block incoming spam calls or texts. These services can flag these incoming calls or texts as potential spam or may block them from contacting you altogether.

You may also be able to report the entity making the calls to the FCC, which enforces the TCPA. It is easy to lodge a complaint through the FCC’s online complaint portal. However, the FCC does not follow up on individual complaints. In order to demand that a company cease contacting you, you may need to speak with an experienced TCPA attorney about your legal options and look into filing a class action lawsuit.

Potential Damages

The proposed Class for the class action lawsuit against Trulieve Florida could number “in the tens of thousands, or more,” Mats’s lawsuit says. Since he is seeking monetary damages of $1,500 per TCPA violation, the suit says the total damages would exceed $5 million, the threshold for federal jurisdiction in class-action lawsuits. Mats argues that he should be awarded damages because Trulieve’s text messages inconvenienced him and disrupted his daily life and used memory on his phone, which risked slowing the device down and rendering it useless for text messaging.

In addition to monetary damages, Mats wants the court to ban Trulieve from using an automatic telephone dialing system to text cell consumers’ phones without their express permission.

The Trulieve Inc. Class Action Lawsuit is Mats Jaslow, individual and on behalf of all others similarly situated, v. Trulieve Inc. Case No. 4:19-cv-00592-RH-CAS in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida.

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If you received an unsolicited text message, ringless voicemail, robocall, and/or a call with a pre-recorded voice from a marijuana dispensary, you may be able to join a FREE marijuana dispensary unwanted text message class action lawsuit investigation.

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