Want to Avoid an SMS Lawsuit Against Your Show?

In this week’s post, I focus on yet another text messaging class action lawsuit, this time, it is one against Jiffy Lube (U.S. District Court, Southern District of California, CASE NO. 3:11-MD-02261-JM-JMA).

While the 25-page August 1, 2012 proposed settlement agreement, which requires Jiffy Lube to pay approximately $47 million in services ($35 million in cash value) to class members, can seem complex due to its length and all of its legal language, the key issue at hand here is pretty simple.

The plaintiffs (recipients of a Jiffy Lube promotional text message) allege that the defendants (Heartland Automotive Services, Inc., the largest Jiffy Lube franchisee in America, and TextMarks, Inc., a mobile marketer) “were able to upload a list of more than 2.3 million former Jiffy Lube customers and to rapidly transmit text messages en masse to those former customers.” The message promoted a one-time offer of 45 percent off a signature oil change.

At first glance, this seems like a solid marketing program … a strong offer to a prime target set and at significant scale. Certainly seeming like a logical and common tactic to stimulate business. However, there was one big problem! “The plaintiffs further allege that they never provided defendants with their express consent to receive such text messages.”

Sending unsolicited text messages is a violation of the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which carries a potential $1,500 fine per violation, and is what triggered this lawsuit.

It should be crystal clear from this situation that even if someone was a customer (read: exhibitor, attendee, visitor, conference delegate, etc.), you cannot run a SMS marketing campaign targeting them without permission. It does not matter how good your intentions are or how good the offer is to the recipient. The point here is simple: Without explicit consent, you are violating the TCPA!

The defendants in this case deny the claims in the lawsuit brought against them by the plaintiffs.

Posted on August 30, 2012