Class Action: Investment Broker Robinhood’s ‘Refer-a-Friend’ Texts Violated Washington State Law [UPDATE]
Last Updated on March 26, 2024
Gordon v. Robinhood Financial LLC et al.
Filed: November 13, 2019 ◆§ 2:19-cv-00390
A proposed class action claims Robinhood Markets, Inc. and its subsidiary “initiated and assisted” in the transmission of unsolicited spam texts through a “refer-a-friend” program.
Washington
Case Updates
March 26, 2024 – Similar Robinhood Spam Text Lawsuit Settled for $9M; Settlement Website Is Live
Robinhood has agreed to pay $9 million to resolve a similar spam text case out of another Washington district court, and the official settlement website can be found at RobinhoodReferralSettlement.com.
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The deal, which was preliminarily approved by the court on February 13, 2024, covers any Washington resident who received a Robinhood referral program text message between August 9, 2017 and February 13, 2024 and did not affirmatively consent in advance to receiving such a message.
The settlement website shares that Robinhood, as part of the deal, will pay $9,000,000 into a fund from which payments will be made to eligible class members who file a timely, valid claim. To receive a share of the settlement fund, class members must submit a claim form online or by mail by May 13, 2024.
To file a claim online, head to this page. According to the settlement agreement, submitting a claim requires you to enter the phone number at which you received the Robinhood text and an eight-digit claims code, which can be found on the notice you may have received by mail or email. Those who did not receive a notice may still file a claim.
Per the website, individual payments are estimated to be between $45 and $90, depending on the number of valid claims.
The parties now await final approval of the class action settlement terms from United States District Judge Barbara J. Rothstein. Payments will be issued to eligible class members if the court approves the deal following a hearing scheduled for July 16, 2024, and after any objections or appeals are resolved.
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January 28, 2021 – Class Certified
United States District Court Judge Thomas O. Rice has certified the proposed class for the lawsuit detailed on this page.
In a 19-page order, found here, Judge Rice wrote that the plaintiff met every prerequisite for certification and would be an adequate representative.
Those covered by the lawsuit include all Washington residents to whom Robinhood, between October 4, 2015 and January 25, 2021, initiated or assisted in the transmission of one or more commercial electronic text messages to a cell phone or pager service equipped with short message capability, or any similar capability allowing the transmission of text messages, without obtaining the recipients’ clear and affirmative consent to receive such messages in advance.
The class may include more than 1,100 individuals, according to court documents.
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Update – March 5, 2020 – Class Action Filed in Florida Over Robinhood Outages
A proposed class action lawsuit has been filed in Florida over the outages experienced by Robinhood app users.
The suit looks to cover those who lost access to their Robinhood brokerage accounts and were unable to conduct any transactions on March 2, 2020.
Read ClassAction.org’s write-up of the lawsuit here.
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Robinhood Markets, Inc. and subsidiary Robinhood Financial LLC are facing a proposed class action lawsuit that claims the investment brokerage companies violated the Washington Commercial Electronic Mail Act (CEMA) by encouraging existing users to send unsolicited spam text messages to friends.
According to the complaint, Robinhood ran a “refer-a-friend” program through which subscribers could send acquaintances text advertisements that urged the recipient to register for the defendants’ online brokerage services in exchange for incentives such as free stocks. The lead plaintiff allegedly received the following text in July 2019 that encouraged him to create an account with Robinhood:
“Your free stock is waiting for you! Join Robinhood and we’ll both get a stock like Apple, Ford, or Facebook for free. Sign up with my link. [attachment with link]”
The text, which the suit says did not contain a “stop” or “opt-out” provision, was allegedly sent without the plaintiff’s “clear and affirmative consent.” The case contends that Robinhood “initiated or assisted in the transmission” of text messages to “millions” of other Washington residents without first obtaining their express written consent to do so, an apparent violation of the CEMA.
The lawsuit looks to represent a class covering all Washington residents to whom the defendants sent, or assisted in the transmission of, one or more commercial texts without obtaining clear and affirmative consent within the four years prior to class certification. The suit, which was recently removed to the Eastern District of Washington, seeks damages of up to $1,500 for each alleged violation against proposed class members.
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