Too Many Coupons! Angry Residents Sue to Make it Stop

Imagine it – a virtually unlimited supply of free Sunday coupon inserts, delivered right to your door, no newspaper subscription required! Sounds like heaven to couponers. But to non-coupon users, it’s something else entirely.

A group of Chicago residents has filed a lawsuit against their local newspaper and a major coupon insert provider, to make the coupons stop.

Now, if there are two kinds of people in the world – those who love free coupons delivered to their door, and those who consider it “junk mail” – these residents are among the latter. 25 of them, who live or own property in the Logan Square section of the city, have sued the Chicago Tribune and Valassis, the parent company of RedPlum, for “trespass, public nuisance and private nuisance.”

They claim they’re being inundated with unwanted coupon inserts and ads, and their pleas for it to stop are falling on deaf ears. The Tribune delivers the twice-weekly “ShopLocal” direct mail package to millions of households in the Chicago area. The plastic-bag wrapped packages, tossed outside residents’ homes, include RedPlum coupon inserts, store flyers and advertisements that would otherwise come in the Sunday newspaper for subscribers. ShopLocal is specifically geared toward non-subscribers; the Tribune brags to advertisers that it “reaches 100% of households” – whether most of those households want it or not.

Now 25 of those households have had enough. “The deliveries that are at the core of the complaint are the size of a Sunday newspaper,” the residents’ attorney Michael Jaskula told Coupons in the News. “We are not talking about an occasional flyer stuck on a fence by a local business, but a massive bundle of paper, and multiple copies to each address.” The lawsuit complains that the deliveries keep piling up. “Defendants deliver the unwanted RedPlum/ShopLocal direct mail packages to properties where the previous week’s deliveries remain on the porch, lawn, sidewalk or other location, in plain view,” the lawsuit reads. “The unwanted RedPlum/ShopLocal deliveries pile up week after week, creat(ing) the impression that the property is abandoned or the owners are out of town.” In one case, the suit alleges, one plaintiff’s home was burglarized “in part because of the number of RedPlum/ShopLocal deliveries that had piled up on his doorstep while he was out of town.”

Moreover, the lawsuit notes that residents have repeatedly called and written the Tribune, asking for the deliveries to stop. The fact that they keep coming, means the plaintiffs must pick up and dispose of the unwanted packages, “which is a substantial annoyance” and which costs them “time out of their lives that the plaintiffs can never recover.”

For that, each of the 25 plaintiffs is seeking $50,000 in punitive damages.

In a statement, the Tribune said “we understand the frustration felt by some who wish to opt out, and we are revisiting that process in order to improve the customer experience. If a resident wishes to stop delivery, please call 1-800-TRIBUNE or email triblocalvalues@tribune.com.” Valassis has not commented, but it too offers an opt-out form.

“Had the Tribune’s opt-out system been more effective, there would have been no need to sue,” Jaskula told Coupons in the News. It’s unclear whether the plaintiffs hope to actually collect their $50,000, in addition to having the deliveries stop. Jaskula said the lawsuit (and presumably, the $50,000 figure) was simply a last resort to get the Tribune’s attention. And so far, it seems to have done just that – Jaskula said the number of deliveries to the plaintiffs’ addresses seems to have declined lately.

So if you’re interested in stocking up on all the free RedPlum inserts you can carry, might want to consider a road trip to Chicago. But get them while they last – before residents, who want no part of them, get their wish.