On Tuesday in the Northern District of Illinois, a class-action complaint was filed against AbbVie Inc., alleging that the defendant violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) by delivering marketing text messages to phone numbers registered under the National Do-Not-Call (DNC) Registry.
Between Nov. 22 and 23, 2020, lead plaintiff Tyler Baker received five text messages marketed Restasis, an eye drop product for chronic dry eye made by pharmaceutical company Allergan, which was acquired by AbbVie in May 2020.
According to the complaint, Baker, on or about Nov. 4, 2004, registered his cell phone number under the DNC Registry; he also claimed that he never gave “prior express consent” to the defendant to send him text messages.
“Plaintiff suffered actual harm as a result of the text messages at issue in that he suffered an invasion of privacy, an intrusion into his life, and a private nuisance. … Upon information and good faith belief, Defendant knew, or should have known, that Plaintiff registered his cellular telephone number with the DNC Registry,” the complaint stated.
Since “(a) text message is a ‘call’ as defined by the TCPA,” the complaint said, the plaintiff and putative class alleged that AbbVie violated multiple sections of the TCPA in “initiating, or causing to be initiated, telephone solicitations to telephone subscribers such as Plaintiff and the class members who registered their respective cellular or residential telephone numbers with the DNC Registry.”
The putative class includes anyone in the U.S. whose residential or cell phone number was registered under the DNC Registry for at least 30 days before they received more than one text message from AbbVie promoting its products or services within a 12-month period, from four years before the filing of this complaint through class certification — excluding “Defendant, its officers and directors, members of their immediate families and their legal representatives, heirs, successors, or assigns, any entity in which Defendant has or had a controlling interest, and any member of the class(es) certified in Weisbein v. Allergan, Inc.”
The plaintiff and putative class members seek a declaration that the defendant was in violation of the TCPA, enjoinment to stop the defendant from continuing the alleged misconduct, class damages, class treble damages, attorneys’ fees, costs, and expenses, among other reasonable relief.
The plaintiff and putative class members are represented by Greenwald Davidson Radbil PLLC.
