Ever pump gas and seen the little POS sign up screen asking you to join an SMS program to save a few cents a gallon on gas?

I know I have and I always chuckled because– being the world’s greatest TCPA lawyer– I know the disclosures are inadequate and the entire process is questionable.

Obviously the Czar does not sign up for such things, but some folks do. Among them a guy named Adrian Coronel who claims he began receiving messages from Shell’s Fuel Rewards program back in March.

He texted “stop” but Shell went ahead and kept shelling his phone with SMS messages (actually it wasn’t that bad, it allegedly only sent him two more– but that’s all it takes folks!)

The offending messages were sent in May– which is more than the allotted 10 business days to honor an optout– so this may be a serious problem for Shell (or maybe the guy just signed up a second time.)

Who knows.

Notably this appears to be a “perfect stop” situation and not a free form revocation case, so Shell’s failure to honor the stop is interesting. And after Albertson’s just settled a similar DNC SMS class claim for ~$6MM this week, you can bet Mr. Coronel (sounds weird) will be all over this one.

Coronel wants to represent a class of:

All persons within the United States who, within the four
years prior to the filing of this lawsuit through the date of
class certification, received two or more text messages within
any 12-month period, from or on behalf of Defendant,
regarding Defendant’s goods, services, or properties, to said
person’s residential cellular telephone number, after
communicating to Defendant that they did not wish to receive
text messages by replying to the messages with a “stop” or
similar opt-out instruction.

Basically the same definition of the Albertson’s settlement class definition.

Complaint here: Shell Complaint

Will keep an eye on it.