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Supreme Court Considers Letting Businesses Pay to End Class Actions

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether a defendant in a class action case can end litigation by offering full payment to the lead plaintiff, Bloomberg's Greg Stohr reports.

Plaintiff Campbell-Ewald Co. is facing hundreds of millions of dollars for allegedly violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) by sending automated text messages. The lead plaintiff was offered $1,503 for each text mesage he received, which Campbell-Ewald said makes the case legally moot because the lead plaintiff was offered everything to which he might be entitled.

The TCPA is being criticized by Campbell-Ewald as "' an extortionist weapon in the hands of class action attorneys seeking to extract lucrative attorneys’ fees for class-wide settlements.'"