{"id":376,"date":"2018-07-09T20:02:28","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T20:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.www.claimsmatch.co\/?p=376"},"modified":"2018-07-09T20:02:28","modified_gmt":"2018-07-09T20:02:28","slug":"florida-restaurant-chain-pays-975000-to-end-tcpa-class-action-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.claimsmatch.co\/florida-restaurant-chain-pays-975000-to-end-tcpa-class-action-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Restaurant Chain Pollo Tropical Pays $975,000 To End TCPA Class Action Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pollo Operations Inc., proprietors of Pollo Tropical restaurants in Florida, offered to pay $975,000 to class members this year to settle a class action lawsuit that alleged the company violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).<\/span><\/h2>\n

Pollo Tropical Operations<\/b>
\nPollo Tropical is a restaurant chain and franchise with headquarters in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It parent company, Pollo Operations Inc., manages over 140 Pollo Tropical eateries with sites in Florida and Georgia and in college campuses throughout the world, including New York City, Chicago, Latin America and the Caribbean. <\/span>
\nDuring the last twenty years, Pollo had secured permission to deliver advertising, coupons and other marketing materials via internet, phone or text message to over one million customers; express text coupons were redeemable at participating Pollo Tropical establishments worldwide. <\/span>
\nThe plaintiff\u2019s in this TCPA<\/a> class action contend management failed to update their databases and consent forms before sending out volumes of marketing material over the last four years. \u00a0<\/span>
\nPollo Operations Mass Markets Text Messages Without Consent<\/b>
\nBetween 2012 and 2017, Pollo allegedly distributed systematic marketing text messages to cell phone numbers while assuming that the owners consented to receiving the communication. <\/span>
\nClass members (learn what are class members in a class action lawsuit<\/a>) in this lawsuit assert former Pollo customers used their phones to register express consent to receive electronic marketing, and since then, service providers had reassigned the cellular numbers which dissolved any prior permission Pollo possessed to deliver spam marketing texts to these phones. <\/span>
\nPlaintiffs further contend, in an attempt to obtain profits, the restaurant owners used robo-calling to send advertisement and promotional material in mass quantities, flooding cellular telephones with unwanted messages in explicit violation of federal statutes. <\/span>
\nPollo Tropical propaganda also produced \u201cunwanted aggravation\u201d among class members and economic burdens, as wireless carriers billed the plaintiffs every time they received an unsolicited announcement. <\/span>
\nJudge Denies Class Action Motion to Dismiss <\/b>
\nPollo Operations denied violating the TCPA and refuted all class members\u2019 claims. In May 2018, Judge Carlos E. Mendoza struck down the defendant\u2019s motion to dismiss the TCPA class action, holding the defendant failed to produce evidence that proved the class members offered their express written consent to receive the automated marketing texts. <\/span>
\nPollo has since agreed to settle all claims to save on future legal expenses; yet, the company continues to deny any wrongdoing. <\/span>
\nTCPA Class Action Lawsuits<\/b>\u00a0 <\/span>
\nCongress wrote the\u00a0TCPA in 1991 with intent to shield consumers from annoying telemarketers and from other unwanted business solicitations.<\/span>
\nToday, companies must first get permission before reaching out to their customers or before soliciting material to potential patrons; the TCPA further proscribes businesses from taking part in the following acts without first procuring a person\u2019s written consent:<\/span><\/p>\n