When you buy a client list as part of buyng a firm’s assets, do you have an established business relationship with the clients that allows you to fax them? The issue just cost Pitney Bowes $2.9M to settle….
Greg Land of the Fulton County Daily Report reports:
Business service and supply giant Pitney Bowes has agreed to settle a “blast fax” class action by giving $26 coupons to plaintiffs for each week they received an unwanted fax — and $950,000 to the lawyers for the class.
The $2.9 million settlement ends a case originally filed in Cobb County, Ga., before being transferred to federal court. It began with Pitney Bowes’ 2007 purchase of the corporate assets of Laser Life, a Marietta, Ga.-based supplier of toner and other printer products, according to court filings.
Among those assets was Laser Life’s client list, which included more than 3,000 fax-machine numbers the company used to advertise its products. When Pitney Bowes assumed the operation, it began sending out promotional advertisements for its products to those numbers, according to the original complaint.
Read more about the legal claims and arguments on Law.com.
Hat-tip, Overlawyered