TCPA Class Action Alleges Amazon Engages in Text Message ‘Spam’

Amazon engages in unsolicited text messaging and continues to text-message consumers after they opt out of its solicitations, alleged plaintiff Jennifer Holt’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action Thursday (docket 6:23-cv-00104) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Oklahoma in Muskogee. Amazon’s unsolicited text message “spam” caused Holt and members of the proposed class harm, “including violations of their statutory rights, trespass, annoyance, nuisance, invasion of their privacy, and intrusion upon seclusion,” it said.

On “multiple occasions” beginning in October 2021, Amazon sent text message solicitations to Holt’s cellphone number after her repeated requests for the messages to stop, said the complaint. Her complaint contains eight pages of screenshots of the unwanted texts, pitching everything from $200 off on a 65-inch Sony Bravia XR TV, to a 21.5-inch HP monitor for $99.99, to a 33% discount off a Philips Air Fryer.

Amazon doesn’t “honor” consumers’ requests to opt out of the text-message solicitations, said Holt’s complaint. The McCurtain County, Oklahoma, resident attempted to opt out “numerous” times by responding “stop” to the incoming text messages but still they continued, it said.

Amazon, on “information and belief,” maintains access to “outbound transmission reports” for all text messages it sends advertising or promoting its services and goods, said Holt’s complaint. “These reports show the dates, times, target telephone numbers, and content of each message sent,” it said. It also maintains records of all “inbound opt-out requests,” it said.

Amazon’s failure to honor opt-out requests demonstrates it doesn’t “maintain written policies and procedures regarding its text messaging marketing,” said the complaint. It also fails to provide proper training to its telemarketing personnel, and doesn’t maintain an internal “standalone” do not call list,” it said. The complaint defines the proposed class as all individuals in the U.S. who received two or more text messages from Amazon in any 12-month period within four years before the filing of the complaint, and who tried to opt out. Amazon didn't comment.