Team Pays $3M Settlement for Texting

Jerry Wojcik is a Buffalo Bills fan, and he signed up for a text service from the team. The agreement said he'd get no more than five texts a week, but when he got 13 in two weeks, what did he do? Hey, this is America, so of course he sued! And won! 

The suit, filed in 2012, said the Bills' behavior was a violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Well, it seems that this law was created to protect real people against unwanted spam. Some might argue he was getting precisely the sort of messages he wanted, but just a few too many, but that's a no-no according to the law. The Bills apparently decided not to pursue the case in court and have now settled for the sum of $3 million. 

No, you might ask, Mr. Wojcik didn't become $3 million richer. It was a class action lawsuit, so $2.5 million will be paid to the approximately 39,750 people who signed up for the text alert service. And, the money will not be paid in cold, hard cash. Instead, the Bills will issue debit cards that can be used at the team store. This seems rather a nifty proposal, given that all the people so heinously affected were supposedly Bills fans, desperate for information about their team. 

Mr. Wojcik himself will receive $5,000 for leading the class action. Of course, the remaining $562,500 will be going to Mr. Wojcik's lawyers. This is America, right?