On December 27, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington granted class certification and preliminarily approved a putative class action settlement alleging two Washington cannabis companies violated the TCPA by sending unsolicited promotional text messages without consumer consent. According to the plaintiff’s unopposed motion for preliminary approval of the settlement, the plaintiff contended that she did not consent to receiving commercial texts from defendants, and alleged violations of the TCPA as well as Washington’s Consumer Protection Act predicated on the defendants’ alleged violations of Washington’s Commercial Electronic Mail Act. The preliminarily approved settlement would give affected consumers vouchers totaling up to $618,000. Class counsel also intends to move for a class representative award and attorneys’ fees and expenses. The proposed settlement class includes anyone in Washington who received at least one unsolicited commercial text message from or on behalf of the defendants after June 22, 2015, and through the date of class certification.

The court granted final approval to the settlement on April 11.