A hockey fan wants to penalize the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins for excessive texting.
Plaintiff Fred Weiss says he signed up to receive text message alerts from the team on happenings such as special ticket offers, player trades and other breaking news. Weiss says the team's promotional agreement stipulated that it would send no more than three texts per week to fans.
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But, Weiss says, the team "intentionally and systematically transmitted text messages to individual consumers in excess of that weekly limit." His first week after subscribing, Weiss says, he received five text messages. The next week, four.
He says the Penguins violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by exceeding the agreed upon volume of text messages. The suit was filed in United States District Court in the Central District of California on May 25.
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Weiss's complaint seeks unspecified "statutory and punitive damages," as well as an order requiring the Penguins to "cease its transmission of text messages in excess of the agreed upon weekly limit."
Weiss is seeking class-action status for his suit. The complaint reads in part:
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.
You can read Weiss's full complaint at courthousenews.com.
Do you think it's reasonable for a sports fan to sue a team for sending too many text messages in an opt-in program? Share you decision in the comments.
Image courtesy clydeorama, Flickr.
This story originally published on Mashable here.
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