An Phan v. Agoda Co. Pte. Ltd.

351 F. Supp. 3d 1257
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedDecember 13, 2018
DocketCase No. 16-cv-07243-BLF
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 351 F. Supp. 3d 1257 (An Phan v. Agoda Co. Pte. Ltd.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
An Phan v. Agoda Co. Pte. Ltd., 351 F. Supp. 3d 1257 (N.D. Cal. 2018).

Opinion

BETH LABSON FREEMAN, United States District Judge

On four separate occasions after booking travel on Defendant Agoda Company Pte. Ltd.'s website, Plaintiff An Phan received a text message from Agoda that read "Good news! Your Agoda booking [number]

*1259is confirmed. Manage your booking with our free app http://app-agoda.com/GetTheApp." Plaintiff filed this putative class action asserting a single cause of action: violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 ("TCPA"), 47 U.S.C. § 227. Before the Court is Defendant's pre-certification motion for summary judgment. See ECF 37. The sole question the Court must answer is whether the text messages Phan received qualify as advertising or telemarketing under the TCPA. The Court holds that they do not.

Accordingly, for the reasons discussed below, Agoda's motion for summary judgment is GRANTED.

I. FACTS1

A. Agoda's Booking Process and Policies

Defendant Agoda Company Pte. Ltd. ("Agoda") is an international travel service provider based in Singapore that allows consumers to book travel accommodations, including hotels and flights, online. See Compl. ¶ 11. ECF 1-2; Decl. of Alexis Siarkiewicz ISO MSJ ¶¶ 2-3 ("Siarkieweicz Decl."), ECF 37-2. Agoda has both a website and a phone app that allow customers to make bookings through substantively similar processes. Decl. of Anne Kelts ISO MSJ ("Kelts Decl."), Ex. 2 at 28-30, ECF 37-9. The app, like the website, has various functionalities, including allowing users to manage travel reservations, access vouchers and confirmation numbers, and locate booking properties on a map. Id. at 31; Kamonchanok Rattanasrimata Decl. ISO MSJ ¶¶ 9-10 ("Rattanasrimata Decl."), ECF 37-4. The app allows customers to both manage existing bookings and create new bookings. See Zelenski Decl. ISO Opp. to MSJ ("Zelenski Decl."), Ex. 1 at 14, 18-19, ECF 43-1. And the app is capable of "offering lower prices than those available on Agoda's website" and "showing deals that could not be shown on Agoda's website." Id. at 20-21. Agoda also advertises the app as having these capabilities. Id. at 19-21.

During the booking process, the customer first chooses the specifics of his booking, such as location, travel dates, and number of travelers. Id. at 28. Once the customer has selected these criteria, he enters in his personal information, either by signing into an existing Agoda account or continuing as a guest, and then proceeds to the payments page. Id. On the payments page, the customer enters the necessary information to pay for his booking, though the customer can choose to pay at the time of booking or pay later. Id. at 29. On that same page, in blue hyperlinked text, are the terms "privacy policy" and "general terms," which link the user to the full text of Agoda's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, respectively. Id. at 8, 30. Agoda represents that its Privacy Policy and Terms of Use have remained materially the same since 2013, the beginning of the putative class period here. See id. at 8; Compl. ¶ 30.

Directly above the "Book Now" button, also on the payments page, is the statement "I agree with the Privacy Policy and general terms by booking this room." Id. at 29. By completing the booking and agreeing to Agoda's Terms of Use, the customer agrees "to receive confirmation messages (email and/or SMS)," which the Terms of Use describe as "transactional" and as "not part of the newsletters or marketing mails[ ] from which [users] can unsubscribe." Kelts Decl., Ex. 3 at AG000089. The Privacy Policy further states that the "confirmation" text messages "are not marketing messages," but instead are "part of [the user's] accommodation *1260reservation process" and "contain information for [the user] to check in at [his] booked accommodation." Id. , Ex. 4 at AG000096. The user cannot opt out of these text messages. Id.

Before the booking process is completed, the customer also selects whether to "opt in" or "opt out" of receiving Agoda's marketing promotions. Decl. of Richard Lyne ISO MSJ ¶ 6 ("Lyne Decl."), ECF 37-1. Once the booking process is completed, and the third-party hotel has confirmed to Agoda the customer's reservation, Agoda, through its third-party global messaging service provider Clickatell, sends a text message to the customer to confirm the booking. Kelts Decl., Ex. 2 at 30; Kelts Decl., Ex. 1 ¶ 5, ECF 37-8. Agoda sends confirmation text messages only to users who have both provided their phone numbers and agreed to Agoda's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. See id. , Ex. 2 at 7. Agoda sends these text messages, in part, "to encourage customers to download the Agoda mobile-device application in order to manage with the Agoda app the requested booking, and also in part, ...

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
351 F. Supp. 3d 1257, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/an-phan-v-agoda-co-pte-ltd-cand-2018.