The Florida mini-TCPA continues to take its toll on corporate America.

The latest victim is one of my favorite restaurants–Chipotle!

The fresh Mex restaurant famous for upcharging for creamy guacamole–totally getting this for lunch–is facing a robotext lawsuit arising under the Florida Telephone Solicitation Act. And, in a twist, the suit is brought in California.

In the new class action suit, a lady by the name of Sandra Diaz claims she was minding her own business last Halloween when she was tricked (not treated) by the following message:

Happy Boorito! Visit any U.S. Chipotle in costume & get a $6
entrée after 3pm. Rewards member exclusive. Info:
chipotle.com/rewards&utm_source=Vibes&utm_medium=SMS&
utm_campaign=10312022_Boorito.Txt HELP4help STOP2quit

Now, I will grant you that this is a bad pun but according to Plaintiff this text “invaded Plaintiff’s privacy and intruded upon Plaintiff’s seclusion upon receipt.”

Riiight…

Anyhoo, Plaintiff sues Chipotle–again, in California despite the fact that Plaintiff is a Florida resident suing under a Florida law–seeking to represent:

All persons in Florida who, at any time since July 1, 2021, received
a telephonic sales call made by or on behalf of Defendant using the
same type of equipment used to make telephonic sales calls to
Plaintiff.

And you will notice this class definition is not limited to individuals–like Plaintiff–who claim not to have consented to the texts. Every single person that ever signed up to receive alerts from Chipotle is in this class. So, yeah, it should definitely be stricken as overly broad.

In another interesting note, the case has been assigned to the Hon. David O. Carter. Judge Carter is an absolutely famous federal judge here in Southern California who is known to be tough as nails on both sides. I love litigating in front of the guy–tons of respect for how he runs his courtroom–but that is not universally true amongst litigators. So will be interesting to see where this thing goes.

More broadly, the suit demonstrates that FTSA claims continue to be EXTREMELY dangerous and impact folks from coast to coast. Unlike the federal TCPA–which has a narrow ATDS definition and largely does not apply to text messages–the state of Florida’s autodialer definition is exceptionally broad. And while text messages are a relatively safe channel of communication under federal law, the use of promtional text messages–such as text club engagements–are driving a huge number of claims brought under the Florida mini-TCPA. this is just the latest example.

And remember–just because you are not located in Florida does not make you immune to suit. These plaintiff’s lawyers are happy to sue you in your own home court for texts sent across the nation–just ask Chipotle!

You can read the complaint here: Chipotle FTSA Suit.