Chili’s Parent Denies Bombarding Consumers With Unwanted Text Messages

Brinker International inundates consumers’ cellphones with telemarketing text-message solicitations, and contacts numbers listed on the national and Massachusetts do not call registries, Paul Jones’ Telephone Consumer Protection Act complaint May 3 in Hampden County Superior Court alleged. It was removed Friday (docket 3:24-cv-30078) to U.S. District Court for Massachusetts in Springfield. Brinker, parent company of Chili's Grill & Bar, Romano's Macaroni Grill and Maggiano's Little Italy, denies Jones’ claims, and denies he “is entitled to any relief,” its notice of removal said. The plaintiff also alleges violations of the Massachusetts Telemarketing Solicitation Act. Brinker’s strategies for generating new business involve using an automatic telephone dialing system to send text-message solicitations without the written express consent of the called parties, the complaint said. Jones pays for three cellphone lines under a T-Mobile family plan, and he alleges the defendant texted all three lines well after the numbers were listed on the federal and state DNC registries. Brinker’s conduct was unfair, “immoral, unethical, oppressive and unscrupulous,” the complaint said. The plaintiff “wasted several weeks” researching, locating and hiring an attorney to bring his TCPA action to hold Brinker and its agents “accountable for their actions,” it added.