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Google Slide Hit with Text Message Spam Class Action Lawsuit
By Mike Holter
Florida resident Bret Lusskin, Jr. alleges in the Google Slide class action lawsuit that he received more than 105 text messages on a single day in April through Disco.com — a group-texting platform developed by Slide that allows people to send texts to 99 people at once. When one recipient replies, the response is sent to everyone in the group.
“The resulting chat room can be a chaotic storm of text messages in which people are attempting to figure out what the group is, who the creator is, how they were put in the group, and how to stop it,” Lusskin says in the class action lawsuit.
The influx of messages, Lusskin adds, “became so overwhelming that it effectively ‘jammed’ [his] cell phone, rendering it completely inoperable until the flow of messages subsided.”
The Slide class action lawsuit further alleges that the introductory message Lusskin received contained an ad for Disco.com that informed him he could avoid text-message charges and chat for free by downloading an app. Lusskin’s attorney said that even though the service allowed message recipients to opt out, Google’s Disco service should instead operate in an opt-in basis. He also said it should be changed so that one person can no longer add other users to a group simply by inputting their phone numbers.
The class action lawsuit alleges that Disco violated the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which prohibits companies from using automatic telephone dialing systems to make calls to cell phones unless the owners have consented. A federal appellate court in California ruled two years ago that the law applies to text messages.
The Disco text message class action lawsuit is brought on behalf of anyone who (1) received a text message directly from the Disco group texting service that was not sent by a Disco group leader or another member of a Disco group, and (2) all persons who opted-out of a Disco texting group within 24-hours of receipt of an initiating text message or who was a member of a Disco texting group that was closed within 24-hours of its creation.
The lawsuit is seeking class certification, an award of actual and statutory damages, and an injunction requiring Google and Slide to cease all wireless spam activities.
A copy of the Google Slide Text Message Spam Class Action Lawsuit can be read here.
The case is Bret L. Lusskin, Jr., et al. v. Google, Inc., and Slide, Inc., United States District Court, Northern District of California.
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