Pita Pita Restaurant Operators Sued Over Allegedly Unlawful Automated Text Advertisements

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An Illinois man claims in a proposed class action that he received automated text messages from the operators of Chicago-area Pita Pita restaurants without providing his express written consent to be contacted.

Alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the case claims defendants Hamdi, Inc.; DPPPMG LLC; Pita Pita Prep LLC; Pita Pita Hoffman Estates, LLC; and Pita Pita Lombard, LLC sent similar text messages to “a list of thousands of randomly generated cellular telephone numbers” that belonged to consumers who never consented to receive the messages, with some also having placed their numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry.

“On information and belief, Plaintiff and the Class members did not provide any of the Defendants with prior express written consent to receive such text messages and, as a result, incurred expenses to their wireless services, wasted data storage capacity, suffered the aggravation that accompanies receipt of such unauthorized advertisements, and were subjected to an intrusion upon seclusion,” the complaint scathes.

The plaintiff says he received a text message from the defendants on June 12, 2020 that read, in part, “Pita Pita: Celebrate International Falafel Day with us! Free Falafel with any order over $10 every Friday this month! #FryYay!”

Per the complaint, a second text message received on August 1, 2020 stated the following: “We’re excited – 2 new combo deals at Pita Pita! Wrap, Fries Drink for $11/tax; Bowl and Drink for $12/tax; See ya soon!”

The lawsuit alleges that because the two texts were similar in nature, contained promotional content encouraging the plaintiff to purchase food at the defendants’ restaurants, and used impersonal, boilerplate language, they were likely sent to thousands of consumers en masse using automatic telephone dialing technology.

“Based on the foregoing, no human directed the text messages to Plaintiff’s cellular number; rather, Plaintiff’s number was called using a random or sequential number generator with the capacity to store or produce those numbers,” the suit reads.

The use of an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS), according to the case, is not permitted for non-emergency telemarketing purposes unless the caller obtains the recipients’ prior express written consent to receive the communications.

Per the suit, the plaintiff never “requested, desired, permitted, or otherwise provided his prior express consent or prior express written consent” to the operators of Pita Pita restaurants to send the texts at issue. Moreover, the man’s cell phone number has been listed on the National Do Not Call Registry since May 2009, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit, which was recently removed from Cook County Circuit Court to Illinois’ Northern District Court, looks to represent the following two proposed classes:

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