Consumer Rights: Court Rules on Unwanted Text Messages

An Israeli woman's phone became flooded with hundreds of text messages about someone else's grocery orders, delivery updates, and authentication codes, and the country's largest supermarket chain ignored her repeated requests to stop them. Only after she filed a lawsuit did Shufersal, Israel's leading retail chain, finally address a problem that had persisted for years.

The case came before the Tel Aviv Small Claims Court in a lawsuit seeking 8,500 shekels (approximately $2,300). For an extended period, the plaintiff received automated messages from Shufersal intended for an unknown customer named "Asaf." The messages included routine updates about Shufersal Online orders, notifications about substitute products, and even critical authentication codes for completing transactions.

Despite contacting the company multiple times, including through its official Facebook page, the error remained unresolved and messages continued arriving without interruption. The plaintiff argued that the situation invaded her privacy, wasted her time, and caused significant distress as she was forced to deal with a constant stream of communications that had nothing to do with her.

Shufersal attempted to deflect responsibility, claiming the source of the problem was not its systems but rather a customer who entered an incorrect phone number. The company also argued it had acted appropriately once it requested identifying information from the plaintiff and that these were service messages rather than advertising, and therefore should not warrant compensation for spam.

Senior Registrar Naama Nir rejected the retailer's attempts to avoid liability. While the court determined that the messages were operational communications rather than spam, it ruled unequivocally that Shufersal's conduct constituted "gross negligence."

Court documents revealed that despite complaints beginning in 2022 and renewed in October 2024, the code to stop the messages was only entered into the system in March, and only after the lawsuit was filed. The registrar emphasized that the response was both delayed and inadequate, and that evidence clearly showed the problem could have been stopped much earlier.

After finding that the plaintiff had received nearly 170 unwanted messages, the court ordered Shufersal to pay her 4,000 shekels (approximately $1,100) in compensation plus 500 shekels in legal costs. The ruling establishes an important precedent regarding corporate responsibility for handling digital errors and preventing customer harassment.

The case joins a series of lawsuits against Israeli retail chains in recent years, including a claim by a disabled person alleging humiliation at a Shufersal branch and a lawsuit by former Shufersal CEO Uri Waterman for approximately 5.8 million shekels.