Pittsburgh Penguins Fan Sues Team For Texting Him Too Frequently

A fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins NHL team is suing the owners for the hockey franchise — not for the team’s embarrassing loss at the hands of the infinitely superior Philadelphia Flyers, but because he got more than he bargained for when he signed up for text alerts from the team.

The lawsuit, brought last week in the U.S. District Court in California’s Central District, says that the Penguins violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by sending more text messages than agreed to in the terms and conditions.

According to the complaint, when the plaintiff signed up for the text alerts — intended to provide information like player trades, breaking news, and special team-related offers — the agreement on the Penguins website states the team will send a maximum of three texts per week.

However, the plaintiff alleges that in the first week, he received at least five texts from the team. The next week, it was four.

From the complaint:

By exceeding the authorized limits on weekly text message calls made to Plaintiff… Defendant has caused Plaintiff and the other members of the Class actual harm, not only because they were subjected to the aggravation that necessarily accompanies the invasion of privacy caused by unsolicited text message calls, but also because consumers frequently have to pay their cell phone service providers for the receipt of such wireless calls.

The suit [via CourthouseNews], which seeks class-action status, is asking the court for an injunction that would prevent the team from texting beyond the 3/week limit. It’s also asking for unspecified damages.

Is this is a case of a consumer holding a company accountable or is it a rush to litigate? We’ll leave it up to the Consumerist hive mind to decide:


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