A federal judge in New Jersey has dismissed a lawsuit against a department store because the plaintiff did not revoke consent to receive text messages in the way that she was instructed to do so.
The plaintiff, Amy Viggiano, originally signed up to receive text alerts from Kohl’s Department Stores, but subsequently revoked consent. Viggiano tried to get the store to stop sending text messages by replying to those messages with “I’ve changed my mind and don’t want to receive these anymore,” “Please do not send any further messages,” and “I don’t want these messages anymore. This is your last warning!” The automated system used to send the text messages replied that it did not understand the message being sent by Viggiano.
The text messages from Kohl’s included a disclaimer that said consent could be revoked by replying “STOP” to any text message.
Viggiano had filed a class-action lawsuit against Kohl’s, claiming the number of potential victims was in the “tens of thousands.”
“To the contrary, the facts in the Complaint suggest Plaintiff herself adopted a method of opting out that made it difficult or impossible for Defendant to honor her request,” Judge Brian R. Martinotti wrote in his ruling dismissing Viggiano’s lawsuits, who went on say that Viggiano’s arguments “defy” common sense.
Martinotti referenced a similar case in the Central District of California (Epps v. Earth Fare Inc.), which followed virtually the exact same set of circumstances.
A copy of the ruling in the case of Viggiano v. Kohl’s can be accessed here.
