Portland Leather Fails to Honor Consumers’ Opt-Out Requests, Says Class Action

To promote its leather goods and services, Portland Leather engages in unsolicited text messaging and continues to text message consumers after they have opted out of those solicitations, alleged plaintiff Carolina Wyche’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action Monday (docket 2:24-cv-01424) in U.S. District Court for Eastern Louisiana. Portland’s illegal conduct “has resulted in the invasion of privacy, harassment, aggravation, and disruption of the daily life of thousands of individuals,” said Wyche’s complaint. Portland has caused multiple text messages to be transmitted to Wyche’s cellphone, it said. The plaintiff first asked Portland on Feb. 2 to stop contacting her, but the company sent her at least a dozen more text messages through May 25, said the complaint. The company doesn’t honor consumer requests to opt-out of text message solicitations, though Wyche’s cellphone number has been listed on the national do not call registry since August 2006, it said. Portland’s failure to honor opt-out requests demonstrates that it doesn’t maintain written policies and procedures regarding its text messaging marketing, it said. It also shows that Portland fails to properly train its telemarketing personnel and that it doesn’t maintain a standalone DNC list, it said. Portland’s text message “spam” caused Wyche and the class members harm, “including violations of their statutory rights, trespass, annoyance, nuisance, invasion of their privacy, and intrusion upon seclusion,” it said. The text messages also occupied storage space on Wyche’s and class members’ phones, it said.