Coach Outlet has found itself in hot water with shoppers over intrusive and bothersome telemarketing texts.
The brand’s owner, Tapestry Inc., was slapped with a class-action lawsuit on Dec. 27 alleging that texts Coach Outlet sent to consumers before 8 a.m. and after 9 p.m. violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
Filed by plaintiff Kededra Watler in a California Federal Court, the complaint said that texting outside of normal business hours disturbed her “peace and quiet.” Watler said she never agreed to receive texts from the brand in the early morning or late evening, nor did other consumers authorize the behavior from the brand.
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Passed in 1991, the TCPA regulates telemarketing communications in the form of calls or texts, with the goal of protecting shoppers from robocalls, spam texts and other unwelcome and disruptive outreach from companies. The law specifies that parties may not contact consumers during “quiet hours,” defined as morning before 8am or evening after 9pm in their particular time zone.
Enforced by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the law also requires that commercial entities looking to use telemarketing tools obtain written consent from consumers and provide a clear, conspicuous option for opting out of calls or texts.
Watler is now looking to represent through the class action a contingent of consumers who received violative texts from Coach Outlet within the last four years. She is pursuing a jury trial and requesting declaratory and injunctive relief, as well as statutory damages for herself and all members of the class action lawsuit.
Tapestry isn’t the only fashion firm being challenged for violations of the TCPA; on Dec. 16, 2024, consumer Isabel Alvarez filed a class-action suit against Skims for similar activities.
In her formal complaint, filed with a California federal court, Alvarez said the shapewear and loungewear brand sent a multitude of texts that arrived between the hours of 6:01am and 7:08am—a clear violation of the TCPA’s quiet hours rule. She noted that Skims was never given permission to contact her outside of the stipulated business hours.
