Text spammers will pay $14.5 million over unwanted nonsense

These days, the spam phone calls come in on a regular basis even though they are illegal and annoying. Spam text messages are also a thing. These plaintiffs brought a class action against American Eagle Outfitters for sending unwanted text messages. The Court of Appeals says they have standing to bring this case, which means the class action survives.

The case is Melito v. American Eagle Outfitters, issued on April 30. This case demonstrates why we live in a civilized society. We resolve disputes through lawsuits, where learned judges review the facts and the law to achieve the proper result. Without this process, the phone spammers would be dealt with through mob justice, which is what they deserve. But mobs do not adhere to due process.

Under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, it is illegal to make unwanted cell phone calls through an automatic dialing system. The FCC interprets the law to also prohibit unwanted text messages, which are annoying, but not as annoying as spam phone calls. The TCPA says you get $500.00 per violation. That may not sound like much, but class actions have a way turning small damages into huge damages. In this case, the class has more than 600,000 members, and the defendant agreed to pay $14,500,000 in damages, or between $142 and $285 for each class member after the legal fees are taken out. But one of the defendants objects to the class certification, claiming the plaintiffs do not even have standing to bring this case.

Standing is one of the few litigation principles enshrined in the Constitution. There must be an actual case or controversy before you can bring a lawsuit. Theoretical lawsuits are not allowed. Defendants Experian says plaintiffs lack standing because they did not suffer any "concrete" injury in fact. But the Court of Appeals (Hall, Lynch and Engelmayer [D.J.]) disagrees and finds for the plaintiffs, reasoning that they allege the very injury the TCPA was intended to prevent, which is "nuisance and privacy invasion." It occurs to me that the judges on this case themselves have received spam phone calls and texts, so they can relate. They probably got a car insurance or student loan phone call when they were writing the opinion. The rule here is that "unsolicited telemarketing phone calls or text messages, by their nature, invade the privacy and disturb the solitude of their recipients. A plaintiff alleging a violation under the TCPA need not allege any additional harm beyond the one Congress has identified."