Lawsuit Filed Against Facebook For Text Messages

So you had a cell phone, and a Facebook Page, and you agreed to receive text messages from Facebook.  Then, you exchanged, lost, or cancelled your cell phone account.  For whatever the reason, you now have a new cell phone number.   Your old phone number is assigned to someone else and guess what?  They are now receiving text messages from Facebook intended for you.

They new owner of the phone number wants Facebook to stop sending them text messages intended for you, but Facebook doesn’t stop.    The owner of the Facebook page has to confirm that they no longer want text messages sent to their old cell phone number. You’re not the owner of the Facebook page and cannot make changes to the Facebook account that belongs to someone else.

Last year, Facebook settled a case filed by a Florida woman who sued them for unwanted texts.  This time around, lawyers are seeking to certify a class.

The Recorder reports that the lawsuit has been filed by lawyers at the privacy specialty firm of Edelson P.C.  It was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.  The suit claims that when a Facebook user deactivates a phone number and it gets reassigned, the company continues to send automated text messages without the new owner’s consent. The suit claims that the unwanted messages violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which carries damages of $500 per violation.  The amount of damages can be tripled in cases of willful violations.

The Edelson suit seeks to certify a class of cellphone users who received text messages from Facebook without consent and a separate class of people who made an express attempt to get Facebook to stop sending the texts that was ignored. The lawsuit asks that Facebook be barred from any future telemarketing until it establishes an internal “do not call” list as required under the TCPA.