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Buffalo Bills pay about $3 million to settle lawsuit over text messages

Buffalo Bills pay about $3 million to settle lawsuit over text messages

It stinks when you go over your alloted amount of texts in a month. Those extra messages really add onto your bill.

And if you're the Buffalo Bills, the cost of those pesky extra text messages is about $3 million.

The problem started when the Bills started sending text alerts in 2012. It was an opt-in service that provided updates on the team. Jerry Wojcik, a Bills fan living in Florida, said the team violated the terms of the service by sending 13 texts in two weeks, when the Bills said they would send no more than five per week, the Buffalo News said. So he sued the team with a class-action lawsuit.

Does that seem like an outrageous lawsuit? Sure does. But the Bills are paying up. They're giving debit cards of either $57.50, $65 or $75 to be used at the team store in Orchard Park, N.Y. or at the online team store. The amount of the debit cards given to the class members is $2,487,745, the Buffalo News said. Another $562,000 went to Wojcik's lawyers and Wojcik got $5,000 in cash.

Those are some expensive text messages. The lawsuit was ridiculous, but it worked.

“The Buffalo Bills have reached a settlement in this matter which we believe is in the best interest of our organization and our fans. The purpose of the Bills’ voluntary, opt-in text messaging program was to provide our fans with information they requested about the team. The organization maintains that our text messaging program was in compliance with the law,” Bills spokesman Scott Berchtold said in a statement, according to the Buffalo News.

The Bills lawyers have been busy. They're also dealing with a lawsuit filed by the team's cheerleaders. At this point the team will be thrilled when the season starts and they can put this crazy offseason behind them. It's a good bet they won't be sending you any text messages to inform you of any good news that might happen in the meantime.

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Frank Schwab

is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdowncorner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!