TAMPA (CBS Tampa) – A dedicated Buffalo Bills fan living in Tampa is suing his beloved Bills for sending him three more text message updates than he expected during a span of several weeks.
In an attempt to keep up with the team, Jerry Wojcik signed up for a text-message program that would keep him connected to the Bills. But instead, the program has led to “excessive” text messages and a class-action lawsuit against the team for sending three more text messages than they pledged to send in a matter of weeks.
The Buffalo News reports that Wojcik is going through with the lawsuit as he claims that the Bills would not send out more than five text alerts per week. But that was not the case. During the week of Sept. 23 to Sept. 29, Wojcik claims to have received six text alerts from the team. From Oct. 14 to Oct. 20, he claims to have received seven, according to the court papers.
The lawsuit is being bemoaned by fans and the legal community as being frivolous, but Wojcik’s lawyers disagree, citing a pair of spam-settlement cases totaling almost $70 million in damages between the two of them.
“Furthermore, a ‘frivolous lawsuit’ is one that has little chance of succeeding in court,” attorneys Scott D. Owens and James S. Giardina stated to the Buffalo News. “This case is exactly the opposite. We have a defendant who appears to have violated a federal law on multiple occasions, affecting thousands of people. Whether you are a fan of the Bills or not, no one should spam their customers. The [Telephone Consumer Protection Act] has been on the books for more than 20 years. The Bills either knew or should have known that they were breaking the law.”
The lawsuit, which is basing the excessive texts were made without Wojcik’s consent, states that the Bills violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Wojcik is seeking statutory damages of $500 per excessive call for negligent violations and another $1,500 per excessive call for willful violations, according to the Buffalo News.
The suit comes amid a three-game losing streak for the Bills. The team fell to 3-6 on the season after a 37-31 loss to the New England Patriots on Sunday.
