Miami Strip Club Sent Patrons Hundreds of Spam Text Messages: Lawsuit
Perhaps the last thing anyone wants on their cell phone is a strip club text message. Or you know, 280 of them in one year.
That's just what happened to Bret Lusskin, lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit filed against the parent company of Tootsie's Cabaret, a strip club in Miami Gardens, Fla. He, and perhaps hundreds of others, received a constant stream of text messages from the strip joint after entering a contest.
Now he wants $500 for each message received.
The class action suit claims Tootsie's Cabaret "surreptitiously obtained" cell phone numbers from its patrons, explains NBC Miami. The club held a contest for a Rolex, which was actually a ruse designed to "lure people into providing their cell phone numbers," according to attorney Scott Owens.
Owens, the attorney in charge of the case, believes the strip club text messages violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which limits unsolicited marketing calls to homes and cell numbers. It also governs the national Do-Not-Call list.
In this particular context, the TCPA prohibits sending pre-recorded or auto-dialed calls to cell phones without first obtaining consent from the number owner. A handful of courts, including the 9th Circuit, have interpreted "calls" to include text messages.
If Tootsie's Cabaret did not get express prior consent from Lusskin and its other patrons, it arguably violated the law. And if it loses the lawsuit, each strip club text message is worth a $500 fine -- a lot of lap dances for people who are known to frequent such establishments.
Related Resources:
- How to Stop Telemarketing Calls the Do Not Call List Doesn't Cover (FindLaw's Common Law)
- Legal for Telemarketers to Call My Cell Phone? (FindLaw's Law & Daily Life)
- DirecTV, ComCast to Pay $3.2M Over Do-Not-Call Violations (FindLaw's Common Law)