Universal Sued For Spamming Audience With Warcraft Texts

The studio behind recent video games adaptation ‘Warcraft’ are being sued for sending unsolicited texts advertising the film.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, a lawsuit has been filed in Florida federal court for spamming promotional texts to moviegoers. One particular patron, Charlie Fitzgerald III, decided to take on the film studio giants by launching a potential class-action lawsuit.

One of the spam text message in question invites people to get involved, and reads as follows:

“Hello from the Warcraft Movie team. You are one of the chosen few invited to join the fight today. Will you lead the Horde or Alliance to Victory?”

It’s accompanied by a link to the film’s page on Fandango.com. The legal complaint is based upon the violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act after Universal sent the unauthorised text. Fitzgerald is adamant he did not give his number to Universal or permission for any marketing to contact him.

There’s been no response from Universal yet, but Fitzgerald is seeking $500 for each statutory violation. If said violations are found to be wilful rather than erroneous, each claim amount could raise to $1,500.

It’s not exactly welcomed publicity for Duncan Jones’ film that been ripped apart by many of the critics, but has done superb business abroad in countries like China. Despite the fantasy film making a measly $45 million in the US, it’s made just shy of $414 million worldwide, scoring huge numbers in China with over $150 million in its first five days.

With its international success there’s every chance the franchise will live on and spawn one or more sequels - especially if it’s capable of tapping into the Asian market again.

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Picture credit: Universal