VisitBritain is at the centre of a potential class action in the US following complaints from students about alleged spam SMS messages being sent to mobiles.
Buried within VisitBritain's annual report (under "Contingent Liabilities") issued last week was mention of a case filed in the Los Angeles federal court from September 2009.
VisitBritain admits that it could be liable if it is found guilty of sending unsolicited messages to mobile numbers of US students to promote the UK as a destination, contravening the US Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
The message, part of its Campus Program marketing plan, read:
BRITAIN ROCKS! ENTER 4 UR CHANCE 2 WIN A TRIP FOR 2 TO BRITAIN! GET FREE TRAVEL INFO PACK & BRITISH MP3S AT WWW.VISITBRITAIN.COM. PWDBYNEXTONES. SENDSTOP2OPTOUT.
The action also seeks to reprimand a mobile messaging service called MindMatics alongside VisitBritain.
The plaintiff in the case is Frieda Zeidel, an Illinois resident who claims to be bringing the action on behalf of herself and a nationwide class of similarly impacted individuals.
If found guilty VisitBritain and MindMatics could be fined $500 for every individual affected, if the judge in the case eventually deems it a full class action.
The case actually stems back to February 2006, when Zeidel says she received the first in a series of messages from VisitBritain spreading over several months.
The defendant also claims she had to pay her mobile network provider in order to receive the messages.
VisitBritain has declined to comment on the case, but in court documents says Zeidel has "unreasonably delayed" bringing forward the complaint and therefore the case should not stand.
MindMatics denies any wrongdoing.
Think this is the end of it? No...
VisitBritain filed (in February 2010) a third party complaint against an Ontario, Canada-based PR company known as Savvy Strategic R&M. However, it turns out that VisitBritain actually misnamed the company, which is Savvy Strategic R&M.
According to VisitBritain, Savvy was contracted as project manager to design and implement the Campus Program to attract college students to Britain.
Savvy was alleged to have subcontracted the work out to others in order to visit campuses and obtain personal information from students. VisitBritain says it instructed Savvy to only send SMS promos to those that had given consent to do so.
VisitBritain was seeking indemnification for any damages and costs from Savvy arising from the Zeidel case - an action Savvy denied.
But in another twist to the case, a judge in late July dismissed VisitBritain's action against Savvy "without prejudice", although VisitBritain can effectively return to court and file another third party complaint at a later date.
For its part, Savvy Strategic R&M admitted it contracted with VisitBritain to conduct on-campus promotional activity, but alleges VisitBritain knew Savvy would have to subcontract any text messaging services to another company.
Savvy says it contracted with a company named Launch Pad to acquire valid phone numbers, belonging to people who had opted-in for the VisitBritain campaign, and Savvy says Launch Pad contracted with Mindmatics "to transmit the text messages approved by VisitBritain."
The legal whodunit -- i.e. Zeidel v. Mindmatics and VisitBritain -- continues.
NB: Additional reporting by Dennis Schaal.