Israel's dominant soft drink production company, which distributes the brand Coke for the whole country, agreed to compensate approximately 7.7 million shekels (approximately R$ 10.17 million) to approximately 98,000 people affected by a case of improper sending of messages advertising.
The company will issue vouchers for eight 1.5 liter bottles of Coca-Cola or Coke Zero, as part of a settlement approved by the Central Region Court of Justice in a class-action lawsuit.
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Lawyer Ohad Shmilovich, representing the petitioner, alleged that the company sent extensive and repeated advertising messages to the public in violation of the communications law governing the territory.
After filing the appeal in May 2022, the parties began a mediation process that resulted in the current agreement.
the violation
The company said it has an online application that offers benefits, promotions and offers to registered users.
Users have the option of receiving promotional messages, and these messages should only be sent to those who have given their consent.
However, in December 2021, during a software update performed by a third-party company, a malfunction occurred that changed the sending mechanism, resulting in the imminent distribution of promotional messages to all registered users of the application, regardless of their approval to receive advertising.
The issue was immediately identified by the petitioner prior to the filing of the appeal and was corrected in April 2022.
However, during the failure period, exactly 1,438,456 messages were sent to 98,000 customers registered in the application, violating the country's communication regulations.
After fixing the flaw, the company considered all registered users to have rejected such advertising, requiring additional confirmation to receive the promotional messages.
The agreement will be valid for those who registered in the company's application between December 2021 and April 2022 and received promotional material via text messages.
Vouchers can be redeemed through the app and notification will be sent to group members via text message within 30 days of the court ruling being passed.
In addition, as part of the agreement, it was determined that the company will be required to implement policy reviews for its employees, including service providers involved in sending promotional messages on your behalf, in order to ensure that messages are not sent in violation of the legal requirements.
