Federal Court in Illinois Denies Motion to Certify Class for TCPA Claims

On February 8, 2019, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois denied a motion to certify a class action against our client for claims arising under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”).  Gordon, et al. v. Caribbean Cruise Line, Inc., 14-cv-5848 (NDIL, February 8, 2019).

Plaintiff alleged that he received unsolicited text messages from our client, a marketer of cruise vacation packages.  Although Plaintiff alleged that the text messages violated the TCPA, we presented evidence that, among other things, the text messages at issue were sent only to people who had previously consented to receive such communications.

In a 27-page opinion, the Federal District Court found that plaintiff failed to satisfy Rule 23(a)(4)’s adequacy requirement because of the named plaintiff’s significant business ties to plaintiff’s counsel.  The Federal District Court also agreed that “a multitude of mini-trials will be unavoidable” with respect to our client’s contention that the individuals who received the text messages had consented to being contacted.  Finally, the Federal District Court concluded that the manageability problems of litigating the claims as a class action outweighed the benefits.

TDR lawyer Tim Hudson secured this important opinion.