'Sheer Number' of Sephora Texts Forced Plaintiff to Opt Out: Class Action

Sephora ran a telemarketing campaign that promote its products and services by repeatedly sending text messages or making phone calls to numbers whose recipients asked to be added to Sephora’s internal do not call registry, “a plain violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act,” alleged plaintiff Megan Kelly’s class action Friday (docket 4:24-cv-01648) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in Oakland. Kelly originally consented to receive Sephora’s marketing text messages, but on Jan. 24, she grew tired “of the sheer number" of them daily, so she replied “STOP” to opt out of receiving future texts, said the complaint. Sephora immediately responded that Kelly was “unsubscribed,” but she nevertheless received at least 22 more text messages after her opt-out request urging her to opt back in, it said. “Not only was the number of text messages unreasonable, the times at which she received them was also unreasonable,” said the complaint. On Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 alone, Sephora sent Kelly 21 text messages in total, between 11:25 p.m. and 2:42 a.m., “a clear violation of the TCPA’s calling hours restrictions,” it said. Kelly’s existing business relationship with Sephora “ceased to exist the minute she opted out of its text messaging campaign,” said the complaint. Kelly’s first request to stop texting should have “triggered” Sephora’s obligation under the TCPA to put her number on its internal DNC list, “both under the relevant regulations and under its own internal policies,” it said. But Sephora failed to do that and enforce its internal DNC list policies, it said. Sephora, therefore, “illegally and knowingly” continued to contact Kelly after she requested that Sephora stop texting her, it said.