Robinhood to Pay $9 Million to Settle ‘Refer-A-Friend’ Text Suit

Robinhood Financial LLC will pay $9 million to settle allegations its “refer-a-friend” program enabled the sending of unwanted text messages in violation of Washington’s consumer protection laws.

Cooper Moore and Andrew Gillette alleged that Robinhood orchestrated the sending of the referral messages by offering a reward to users who asked their contacts to join Robinhood’s financial-services platform.

The program violated Washington state’s Commercial Electronic Mail Act and Consumer Protection Act, the lawsuit said.

Judge Barbara J. Rothstein of the US District Court for the Western District of Washington granted the plaintiffs’ motion for final approval of the settlement Tuesday. Rothstein ...