Pizza Hut Hit With Federal Lawsuit Filed in Southern California Court

A federal class action lawsuit accuses Pizza Hut Holdings LLC of continuing to send marketing text messages to customers after they opted out and failing to maintain legally required do-not-call procedures, according to a complaint filed March 12 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

Steven Alejandro Hernandez-Gavidia filed the 12-page complaint with a jury demand at 12:04 p.m., with summons and an amended summons issued within the hour. The case, assigned number 3:26-cv-1552-RSH-JLB, landed before Judge Robert S. Huie with Magistrate Judge Jill L. Burkhardt serving as the referred magistrate.

The suit brings two claims: a Telephone Consumer Protection Act violation and a class action claim. The core allegations are pointed: Pizza Hut Holdings allegedly kept sending promotional texts after recipients had already opted out, failed to keep required do-not-call records, and neglected to properly train personnel on processing opt-out requests. All three failures, the complaint contends, violated the TCPA, the federal statute that governs unsolicited commercial communications.

Gerald D. Lane, Jr. of The Law Offices of Jibrael S. Hindi, PLLC filed the complaint on Hernandez-Gavidia's behalf. That firm has pursued TCPA class actions against major consumer brands in other jurisdictions, making the filing consistent with a broader litigation playbook targeting companies alleged to have ignored consumers' opt-out requests at scale.

No response or defense filing from Pizza Hut Holdings LLC appears in the docket as of the filing date. The case is at its earliest procedural stage: the $405 filing fee was paid, the civil cover sheet attached, and service instructions issued to counsel. The full complaint, including the class definition, specific statutory counts, and requested damages, remains available through the federal court's PACER system.

TCPA class actions carry meaningful financial exposure. The statute provides for statutory damages of $500 per violation and up to $1,500 per willful violation, meaning the per-message calculus can escalate sharply if a court certifies a class of recipients who received texts after opting out. The complaint does not specify a class size or total damages figure in the available docket summary.