Newsmax Guilty of TCPA Wrongdoing That Harms ‘Thousands,' Alleges Class Action

Newsmax engages in unsolicited text messaging to promote its goods and services, and continues to text-message consumers even after they opt out of those solicitations, alleged plaintiff April Roughton’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act putative class action Tuesday (docket 9:23-cv-80969) in U.S. District Court for Southern Florida in West Palm Beach. Roughton seeks injunctive relief to halt the right-leaning media company’s “illegal conduct,” plus statutory damages and “any other available legal or equitable remedies,” said her complaint.

Newsmax’s TCPA wrongdoing “resulted in the invasion of privacy, harassment, aggravation, and disruption of the daily life of thousands of individuals,” alleged Roughton’s class action. The complaint features six screenshots of texts she alleges she received from Newsmax trumpeting right-leaning political themes and programming.

One screenshot discusses how former President Donald Trump’s poll numbers skyrocketed after his April arrest in New York on charges of falsifying business records. Another says “Big media, even Fox News ban talk” of the book Final Battle, and “Trump knows why.” Available for free as a “Newsmax exclusive,” the book, by conservative author David Horowitz, argues leading Democrats are conspiring to convert the U.S. into a single-party socialist state and America’s next presidential election could be its last.

At least two of the screenshots feature the message: “You have been opted out and will not receive any more messages from Newsmax.” Roughton asked Newsmax to stop contacting her, once Jan. 31 and again the next day, said her complaint. But at least 20 more text messages followed, inundating her cellphone through the end of April, it said.

Newsmax doesn’t honor “consumer requests to opt-out of text message solicitations,” said the complaint. Its failure to honor those requests demonstrates Newsmax doesn’t “maintain written policies and procedures regarding its text messaging marketing,” it said. It also shows it doesn’t give its telemarketing personnel the proper training and doesn’t maintain an internal do not call list, it said.

The complaint seeks treble statutory damages of $1,500 per TCPA violation for Newsmax’s “knowing or willful conduct.” Roughton and members of her proposed class “are also entitled to and seek injunctive relief” prohibiting the company’s “illegal conduct in the future,” it said. Newsmax didn’t comment Wednesday.