Holt v. Facebook, Inc.

240 F. Supp. 3d 1021, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65538, 2017 WL 1100564
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedMarch 9, 2017
DocketCase No.16-cv-02266-JST
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 240 F. Supp. 3d 1021 (Holt v. Facebook, Inc.) 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
Holt v. Facebook, Inc., 240 F. Supp. 3d 1021, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65538, 2017 WL 1100564 (N.D. Cal. 2017).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART MOTION TO DISMISS

Re: ECF No. 36

JON S. TIGAR, United States District Judge

Before the Court is Defendant Face-book, Inc.’s Motion to Dismiss Plaintiffs First Amended Complaint under Federal Rule of Civil Procédure 12(b)(6). ECF No. 36. Plaintiff Christine Holt has filed an opposition. ECF No. 39. The Court will grant the motion in part and deny it in part.

I. BACKGROUND

For the purpose of deciding this motion, the Court accepts as true the following allegations from Plaintiffs First Amended Complaint (“FAC”), ECF No. 29. See Navarro v. Block, 250 F.3d 729, 732 (9th Cir. 2001).

Defendant Facebook, Inc. operates an online social network of more than 1.5 billion users. FAC ¶¶ 1, 12. Access to the social network is free, and Facebook relies almost exclusively on advertising to generate revenue. Id. ¶ 2. In order to increase the effectiveness of its advertisements, Fa-cebook collects an array of personal information from its users, including their physical location, browsing histories, and telephone numbers. Id. ¶ 13. To promote user interaction with the platform, Face-book sometimes sends its users automated text messages encouraging them to post status updates. Id. ¶ 37-38. One of the most common text messages states: “What are you up to? Reply with a status update to post to Facebook....” Id ¶ 34. Another states: ‘Your friends have posted [a certain number of] updates this week. Reply to post your own status on Face-book....” Id. ¶ 35.

Plaintiff Christine Holt does not use Fa-cebook. Id. ¶ 46. She did not provide her cellphone number to Facebook and did not authorize Facebook to contact her. Id. ¶ 47. Yet in March and April 2016, Holt received multiple text messages from unfamiliar numbers, asking her to post status updates to Facebook. Id ¶44. Later she learned that the numbers were SMS short codes owned or operated by Facebook. Id ¶ 43. She alleges that Facebook sent mes[1025]*1025sages to her and to other new owners of recycled cellphone numbers.1 Id. ¶¶ 19-20, 43-44. One of the messages Holt alleges that she received follows the template of one of the allegedly common automated messages, stating “Your friends have posted 7 updates this week. Reply to post your own status on Facebook....” Id. ¶ 44. Finally, she alleges that Facebook does not provide a method for opting out of the text messages within the text messages themselves (by allowing users to reply “STOP,” for example), and she cannot change the message settings of a Facebook account that does not belong to her. Id. ¶ 21.

On April 26, 2016, Holt filed her complaint against Facebook, alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), and California’s Unfair Competition Law (“UCL”). ECF No. 1. She seeks to represent the following two classes:

Class 1 (the “No Consent” Class): All persons in the United States who: (1) received a text message call initiated by Defendant: (2) at his or her cellular telephone number: and (3) for which Defendant did not have any current record of prior express consent from him or her to place such text message calls at the time the text message calls were placed.
Class 2 (the “Stop Text” Class): All persons in the United States who: (1) received a text message call initiated by Defendant: (2) at his or her cellular telephone number: (3) after making an express request to Facebook for the text messages to cease, other than a final one-time confirmation text message confirming the recipient’s desire to not receive such messages.

Id. ¶ 51 (emphasis in original).

Facebook now moves to dismiss the complaint under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). ECF No. 36. Holt has filed an opposition to the motion. ECF No. 39. The Court has jurisdiction over the TCPA claim of this action under 28 U.S.C. § 1331 and over the UCL claim under 28 U.S.C. § 1367.

II. LEGAL STANDARD

A complaint must contain “a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Fed. R. Civ, P. 8(a)(2). While a complaint need not contain detailed factual allegations, facts pleaded by a plaintiff must be “enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007). “To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (internal quotation marks omitted). “A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Id. While the legal standard is not a probability requirement, “where a complaint pleads facts that are merely consistent with a defendant’s liability, it stops short of the line between possibility and plausibility of entitlement to relief.” Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). The Court must “accept all factual allegations in the complaint as true and construe the pleadings in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party.” Knievel v. ESPN, 393 F.3d 1068, 1072 (9th Cir. 2005).

III. ANALYSIS

Facebook argues that Holt’s TCPA claim should be dismissed for two reasons. [1026]*1026First,'Facebook argues that Holt’s factual allegations do not support an inference that Facebook used an automatic telephone dialing system (“ATDS”), which is an essential. element of a TCPA claim. ECF No. 36 at 16-23. Second, Facebook argues that if the TCPA does prohibit its text messages, the Court must strike down the TCPA as “an unconstitutional content-baséd speech restriction, both on its face and as applied.” Id. at 23-29. Finally, Fa-cebook argues that Holt’s UCL claim should be dismissed because she lacks standing and she fails to allege either an “unfair” or “unlawful” practice. Id. at 29-3L

A. TCPA

1. Elements of a TCPA Claim

To state a claim for a violation of the TCPA, a plaintiff must allege that “(1) the defendant called a cellular telephone number: (2) using an automatic telephone dialing system: (3) without the recipient’s prior express consent.” Meyer v. Portfolio Recovery Assocs., LLC, 707 F.3d 1036, 1043 (9th Cir. 2012): see 47 U.S.C. § 227(a)(1). Text messages are calls under the TCPA. Satterfield v. Simon & Schuster, Inc.,

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240 F. Supp. 3d 1021, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65538, 2017 WL 1100564, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/holt-v-facebook-inc-cand-2017.