The Violations

Between August 2020 and August 2024, Athena Bitcoin, Inc. ran a text message marketing campaign that continued to contact consumers who had already opted out. According to the class action settlement agreement filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida, the company sent promotional messages to residential telephone subscribers more than 30 days after those subscribers sent a message consisting solely of the word “STOP.”

Under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. § 227, businesses are prohibited from sending telemarketing text messages to people who have requested that those messages stop. The law requires companies to maintain an internal do-not-call list and honor opt-out requests immediately. Athena Bitcoin’s alleged failure to do so forms the basis of the TCPA claims in this case.

The Florida Telephone Solicitation Act, Fla. Stat. § 501.059(5)(a), imposes similar requirements at the state level. Under the FTSA, telemarketers must cease contact within 15 days of a consumer’s stop request. The lawsuit alleges that Athena violated the FTSA by continuing to send promotional texts to Florida residents more than 15 days after they sent opt-out messages.

The settlement agreement defines two classes. The IDNC Class includes all persons in the United States to whom Athena delivered, or caused to be delivered, more than one text message promoting goods or services within any 12-month period, more than 30 days after receiving a message consisting solely of the word “STOP,” between August 20, 2020 and August 20, 2024, excluding business numbers. This class includes approximately 1,833 persons.

The FTSA Class includes all Florida residents with telephone numbers having a Florida area code, to whom Athena delivered, or caused to be delivered, one or more text messages promoting goods or services, more than 15 days after receiving a message consisting solely of the word “STOP,” between July 1, 2021 and August 20, 2024. This class includes approximately 639 persons.

The settlement agreement was executed on January 28, 2026, by Matias Goldenhörn, CEO of Athena Bitcoin, Inc. The court certified the two classes for litigation purposes on June 18, 2025, in an order issued by District Judge Mark E. Walker.

The Non-Financial Ledger

Keon Jackson is the named class representative. His phone number appeared in Athena Bitcoin’s text message records. He sent a stop request. The messages kept coming. He is one of 2,472 people in the same position.

When you text “stop” to a company, you expect the messages to end. You do not expect to become part of a federal lawsuit years later. You do not expect the company to keep your number in rotation. You do not expect to be contacted again within weeks, or months, or over a span of years.

This is a story about the distance between expectation and reality. It is a story about systems that should work and do not. It is a story about the cost of assuming that corporate compliance with consumer protection law happens automatically.

The settlement agreement does not describe the individual experiences of the 2,472 class members. It does not include testimony about the frustration of receiving promotional texts after explicitly requesting that they stop. It does not include data on how many people blocked the number, changed their phone settings, or filed complaints with their carriers. It does not include the mental calculus of deciding whether one more unwanted text message is worth the effort of pursuing legal action.

What the settlement agreement does describe is the absence of infrastructure. Athena Bitcoin agreed, as part of the settlement, to implement policies, procedures, systems, and training specifically designed to ensure ongoing compliance with the TCPA and the FTSA. These measures include: the use of calling and texting systems that comply with applicable federal and state requirements; record-keeping processes sufficient to document compliance, consent, stop requests, opt-out processing, and maintenance of an internal do-not-call list; employee training programs that address the requirements of the TCPA, FTSA, and Athena’s internal compliance protocols; mechanisms to ensure timely and reliable processing of opt-out requests; and oversight of agents involved in any call or text outreach.

The agreement to implement these measures is part of the settlement. This means these systems were not in place when the violations occurred. This means that for a period of at least four years, Athena Bitcoin operated a promotional text campaign without reliable mechanisms to honor consumer opt-out requests.

The harm is not dramatic. It is cumulative. It is the erosion of the assumption that when you tell a company to stop contacting you, it will. It is the realization that opting out does not guarantee an end to contact. It is the understanding that enforcement of consumer protection law often requires collective action, years of litigation, and settlement agreements that include provisions to implement the systems that should have existed from the beginning.

Legal Receipts

“Class Representative’s Amended Class Action Complaint alleges that Defendant violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (the ‘TCPA’) by initiating, or causing to be initiated, text messages without instituting procedures for maintaining a list of persons who request not to receive telemarketing text messages, and that Defendant violated the Florida Telephone Solicitation Act (the ‘FTSA’) by initiating text messages after recipients had communicated to Defendant that they no longer wished to receive text messages.”

“Defendant has agreed to settle all claims under the TCPA and the FTSA, demands and liabilities between Defendant, Class Representative, and the Settlement Classes which were made in the Lawsuit.”

“Defendant agrees to pay $4,500,000.00 (the ‘Settlement Fund’) to settle the Released Claims with the Settlement Classes and obtain a Release of the Released Claims in favor of the Released Parties.”

“Each Class Member shall receive their share of the Settlement Fund based on the number of messages they received in violation of the TCPA and/or the FTSA, after deducting the Settlement Costs from the Settlement Fund.”

“Defendant agrees it will implement and maintain policies, procedures, systems, and training specifically designed to ensure ongoing compliance with the TCPA (and all FCC regulations promulgated thereunder) and the FTSA. These measures include: a. The use of calling and texting systems that comply with applicable federal and state requirements; b. Record-keeping processes sufficient to document compliance, consent, STOP requests, opt-out processing, and maintenance of an internal do-not-call list; c. Employee training programs that address the requirements of the TCPA, FTSA, and Defendant’s internal compliance protocols; d. Mechanisms to ensure timely and reliable processing of opt-out requests; and, e. Oversight of agents involved in any call or text outreach.”

“This Agreement and any actions taken to carry out the Settlement are not intended to be, nor may they be deemed or construed to be, an admission or concession of liability, or of the validity of any claim, defense, or point of fact or law on the part of any party.”

Societal Impact Mapping

Economic Inequality

The $4,500,000.00 settlement fund will be distributed among 2,472 class members after deductions for attorneys’ fees, class representative service award, and settlement administration costs. Class counsel will seek 33% of the settlement fund, which amounts to $1,485,000.00. The class representative service award requested is $9,000.00. Settlement administration costs will be deducted as they are incurred.

The actual amount paid to each class member will be determined after the claim form filing deadline has passed. The amount will depend on the number of settlement class members who submit timely, valid claims. Each class member’s payment is calculated based on the number of messages they received in violation of the TCPA and/or the FTSA.

This payment structure means that class members who received the highest volume of unwanted texts will receive proportionally larger payments. However, the settlement agreement does not specify per-message damages or provide a formula for calculating individual payouts. This lack of transparency makes it difficult to assess whether the settlement adequately compensates individuals for the statutory violations they experienced.

The TCPA authorizes statutory damages of $500 per violation, or up to $1,500 per willful or knowing violation. The FTSA authorizes damages of up to $500 per violation. If the 2,472 class members received an average of two violating texts each under the TCPA’s 30-day threshold, the potential statutory damages could exceed $2.4 million before trebling for willful violations. The $4.5 million settlement represents a compromise between potential maximum damages and the risks and costs of continued litigation.

The settlement also highlights the economic barriers to individual enforcement of consumer protection law. Filing a lawsuit over a handful of unwanted text messages is not economically viable for most people. The cost of hiring an attorney, filing fees, and the time required to pursue individual claims far exceed the potential recovery. Class actions aggregate these small-value claims into a single case that can be pursued efficiently. However, the class action structure also means that attorneys’ fees consume a significant portion of the recovery, reducing the amount available to compensating class members.

Public Health

The public health implications of unwanted telemarketing texts are indirect but measurable. Research on digital intrusion and notification fatigue indicates that repeated unwanted communications contribute to stress, reduced attention capacity, and diminished trust in digital communication channels.

When consumers cannot rely on opt-out mechanisms to function as intended, they lose control over their digital environment. This loss of control has documented psychological effects. A 2021 study published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior found that notification overload correlates with increased anxiety, reduced cognitive performance, and lower overall well-being.

Promotional text messages that persist after opt-out requests also erode consumer trust in legitimate communications. When people become conditioned to ignore or distrust text messages from unknown senders, they may miss important notifications from healthcare providers, government agencies, or other entities with legitimate reasons to contact them via SMS. This degradation of communication channels has measurable public health consequences, particularly for populations that rely on text messaging for appointment reminders, test results, and public health alerts.

The Athena Bitcoin case also illustrates the failure of self-regulation in digital marketing. The TCPA and FTSA impose clear requirements on telemarketers. Athena Bitcoin’s alleged failure to implement systems to honor opt-out requests demonstrates that these statutory requirements do not automatically translate into operational compliance. Without enforcement through private lawsuits or regulatory action, companies have little incentive to invest in compliance infrastructure.

Environmental Degradation

There is no direct environmental impact in this case. However, the broader context of digital infrastructure and energy consumption is relevant. Every text message sent requires server processing, data transmission, and device notification. While the energy cost of a single SMS is negligible, the cumulative energy consumption of billions of unwanted marketing messages contributes to the overall environmental footprint of the digital economy.

The settlement’s requirement that Athena Bitcoin implement reliable opt-out processing mechanisms will, if enforced, reduce the volume of unwanted messages sent in the future. This reduction in unnecessary data transmission represents a marginal but measurable decrease in energy consumption. However, this environmental benefit is secondary to the primary goal of protecting consumer privacy and autonomy.

What Now?

The settlement agreement names Matias Goldenhörn as the CEO of Athena Bitcoin, Inc. who executed the agreement on behalf of the company. The class counsel representing the settlement classes is The HQ Firm, P.C., with attorneys Reid Hudson, Alexander Hood, and Michael Hartmere. The defendant’s counsel is Freeman Mathis & Gary, LLP, with attorneys Houston S. Park III, Krystina N. Machado, and Ayesa N. Conger.

The settlement administrator is Kroll, LLC. Class members must submit claim forms online at the settlement website or by mail to Jackson v. Athena Bitcoin, Inc., c/o Kroll Settlement Administration, P.O. Box 225391, New York, NY 10150-5391. The deadline for submitting claims is 90 days after the notices are sent to the settlement classes.

Class members who wish to exclude themselves from the settlement must mail a written request for exclusion, postmarked by the deadline specified in the notice, to the same address. Class members who wish to object to the settlement must file a timely written notice with the court, with copies sent to class counsel and defendant’s counsel, postmarked by the deadline specified in the notice.

The court will hold a final approval hearing at least 121 days after entry of the preliminary approval order. The hearing will be held before the Honorable Mark E. Walker at the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida, Joseph Woodrow Hatchett United States Courthouse and Federal Building, 111 N. Adams Street, Tallahassee, FL 32301-7730.