By Puja J . Amin
TCPA CLAIMS
COSTLY MISTAKES :
ADAPTHEALTH TO PAY APPROXIMATELY $ 6MM TO SETTLE TCPA CLAIM AFTER IT FAILS TO HONOR SMS STOP REQUESTS
By Puja J . Amin
SO AdaptHealth just settled a TCPA case for about $ 6MM ( I estimate ), and this is just a weird settlement for a couple of reasons .
First , let ’ s acknowledge that AdaptHealth was just featured on TCPAWorld recently for making a blunder in a different TCPA case . That mistake may have cost TCPAWorld a clear shot to challenge a soon-to-be-issued FCC ruling . No biggie .
But apparently , AdaptHealth has made a couple of other TCPArelated mistakes lately .
In Desouza v . Defendants AdaptHealth Corp . (“ AdaptHealth ”) and AeroCare Holdings (“ AeroCare ”) 2023 WL 5434712 ( M . D . Fl . Aug . 7 , 2023 ), AdaptHealth apparently failed to heed stop requests from consumers in response to text messages it was sending out .
Specifically , 32,035 folks apparently received approximately 220,000 text messages after asking for texts to stop .
That is just plain not good . The class definition was as follows :
Since November 23 , 2018 , all persons to whose telephone number the AdaptHealth Parties initiated , or had initiated on their behalf , more than one text message in a 12-month period for the purpose of inviting the recipient to order CPAP supplies , after the recipient had replied “ stop ” or its equivalent to one of the AdaptHealth Parties ’ text messages .
So text messages to sell CPAP supplies resulted in a massive TCPA exposure when , apparently , AdaptHealth failed to honor stop messages .
Weird and bad . But tech glitches do happen , I suppose .
But things get weirder still .
The settlement structure here is unusual . Usually in TCPA class actions , a settlement is a common fund — meaning all sums to be paid come out of a single sum to be paid by the defendant .
AdaptHealth did it differently for some reason . First , they agreed to pay $ 160 to each Plaintiff on a claims-made basis . That means they may be on the hook for over $ 5MM just for payments to class members ( although they may end up paying much less depending on how many claims are made ).
But then they are going to pay another sum on top of that to compensate the Plaintiffs ’ lawyers . That amount is not set yet , but it looks to be over $ 1MM .
26 • TROUTMANAMIN . COM