Adam Jackson
Massachusetts-based Aey Holdings, which does business as Gage Cannabis Co., is being sued by a Michigan woman who said the company violated federal telemarketing laws when it sent unsolicited texts about its products, Law360 first reported.
In Thursday’s case filed in the Western District of Michigan, plaintiff Nicole Sapphire said she received several texts in October regarding products and Halloween-themed bundle deals. She alleges that the company ignored her “repeated opt-out demands and continued to send plaintiff further text messages.”
Screenshots included with the suit show the requests to stop the telemarketing messages in compliance with the text’s opt-out language – sent by more than six different numbers believed to be owned and operated by the defendant.
Sapphire seeks up to $1,500 per violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
The suit comes as one of many class actions pursued over unwanted text messaging ads by cannabis companies over the years. The Federal Communications Commission has determined that the TCPA prohibits all solicitous texts that were not preceded by express written opt-in from consumers.
This is not the first time Aey Holdings has been sued over the same issue in Michigan by Andrew J. Shamis of Shamis & Gentile PA. The firm also took on plaintiff Dane Theisen in a July 2020 class action complaint.
“If plaintiff’s claim that defendant routinely transmits text messages to telephone numbers assigned to cellular telephone services is accurate, plaintiff and the class members will have identical claims capable of being efficiently adjudicated and administered in this case,” Sapphire’s Thursday suit said.
