On August 11, 2017, ride share giant, Uber Technologies Inc., agreed to a $20 million settlement to end a proposed class action litigation in the Illinois federal court that claimed that Uber violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) when it sent unwelcome text messages to both potential drivers and riders.
Named plaintiff, Maria Vergara, originally filed the proposed class action in August 2015. Vergara claimed that Uber sent her continuous, unwelcomed texts over a period of several weeks urging her to complete the app’s sign-up process. Vergara was also joined by named parties Jonathan Grindell, Jennifer Reilly, James Lathrop, Sandeep Pal and Justin Bartolet who similarly claimed that the company sent them unwelcomed texts about becoming drivers.
The proposed $20 million settlement will create three settlement classes—one class for those who Uber texted about it’s Refer-a-Friend program; one class for those who had partially completed the company’s driver application and continued to receive unwanted texts from Uber even after they asked the company to cease communication; and a third class for those who in general received unwanted texts from Uber. The proposed settlement will rid driver-issued cellphones of Uber’s Refer-a-Friend program, improve the company’s opt-out system, as well as implement a sign-up process aimed to reduce the instances of incorrect phone numbers from being contacted.
The case is: Maria Vergara et al. v. Uber Technologies Inc., case number 1:15-cv-06942, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
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