Plaintiff Sues to Stop Boat Rental Firm From 'Bombarding' Him With Text Messages

The Freedom Boat Club promotes its recreational boat rentals services at locations throughout the U.S. by engaging in aggressive unsolicited marketing, “harming thousands of consumers in the process,” alleged Jordan Copeland’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action Wednesday (docket 3:24-cv-00225) in U.S. District Court for Northern Florida in Pensacola. The membership-based club uses aggressive marketing to push its products and services “without regards to consumers’ rights under the TCPA,” said Copeland’s complaint. The defendant began “bombarding” Copeland with telemarketing text messages to his cellphone in February, and the conduct persisted through the month of April, though the Florida resident’s cellphone number has been listed on the national do not call registry since June 2016, it said. The defendant’s unsolicited text messages caused Copeland “actual harm,” including invasion of his privacy, aggravation, annoyance, intrusion on seclusion, trespass and conversion, said the complaint. The text messages also inconvenienced Copeland and caused disruption to his daily life, it said. Copeland estimates that he has wasted 15-30 seconds reviewing each of the defendant’s unwanted messages, it said. Each time, Copeland had to stop what he was doing to either retrieve his phone or look down at the phone to review the message, it said. He also wasted approximately 15 minutes locating and retaining counsel to stop the defendant’s unwanted calls, it said.