Yahoo To Face Class-action Suit Over Automatic Text Messages

(RTTNews) - A Chicago federal judge has granted class-action status to a lawsuit that accuses Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) of sending unsolicited text messages to Sprint cellphone customers in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

U.S. District Judge Manish Shah of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ordered that the lawsuit, originally filed by Illinois resident Rachel Johnson, now applies to all Sprint Corp mobile phone customers in the U.S. to whom Yahoo sent the text messages in March 2013.

The judge said that users could sue as a group over the Yahoo text messages as their claims had enough in common.

He rejected Yahoo's arguments that a class action could subject it to damages that were disproportionate to the alleged harm done. The proposed class action could contain more than 500,000 Sprint cellphone users, according to court documents.

Johnson's complaint claims Yahoo violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 by sending her and potentially thousands of other Sprint customers automated "welcome" messages while other users sent them separate messages via the Yahoo Messenger service. The plaintiffs said that the Yahoo messages constituted unauthorized advertising for Yahoo services.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act bars unsolicited automated texts, phone calls or fax messages, and allows the recipient to sue for damages of up to $1,500 per willful violation.