GatherApp Pegged with TCPA Lawsuit Over Automated Text Messages Allegedly Sent to Users’ Contacts

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GatherApp, Inc. finds itself as the defendant in a proposed class action filed by a plaintiff who says the company’s alleged practice of sending text messages without the consent of recipients violates the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). In addition to the alleged TCPA violations, the lawsuit sticks on the method—called “data mining”—through which the defendant supposedly obtains proposed class members’ phone numbers, which the suit argues is an invasion of privacy.

“When a person downloads [GatherApp’s] mobile application from Apple’s App Store or Google’s Play Store, [the defendant] automatically harvests the data in the downloader’s contact list without consent and then sends text messages without consent to each person in the downloader’s contacts lists, inviting these contacts to download the Gather app,” the lawsuit reads. “[The defendant’s] conduct constitutes a knowing, willful and intentional invasion of privacy to [the plaintiff] and putative class members.”

The case further claims Gather app users have no way of stopping the defendant from mining the data on their phones or sending text messages to their contacts. The defendant allegedly did not make required disclosures to proposed class members concerning the use of an automatic telephone dialing system capable of sending mass text message blasts.