February 2020 Telemarketing Class Action Suits

Navigating the regulatory maze while mitigating risk can be daunting for your organization, especially when dealing with agents working remotely, reps using personal phones, or independents and BPOs marketing on your behalf. Below are recent examples of telemarketing class action lawsuits that can plague your organization without the proper compliance protections in place.

California Consumer Protection Act

The California Attorney General has proposed revisions to the California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA), which was originally published for public comment in October 2019. Notable changes include:

• Personal Information Definition Exclusions clarify the definition of “personal information,” excluding certain information due to the “manner” in which a company “maintains” the information.
• 90-Day Look-Back Removal to remove the 90-day look-back period from the sale opt-out requirement.
• Non-Discrimination Clarification is implemented to distinguish the non-discrimination provision, stating that it is not discriminatory to deny a request to know, a request to delete, or an opt-out for reasons permitted by the CCPA.

Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals

In an important ruling for Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) defendants, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has declined the Ninth Circuit’s ruling in Marks v. Crunch San Diego, LLC. The ruling stated that a dialing system could qualify as an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) even if it only stored or produced phone numbers.

Comparatively, in the case of Gadelhak v. AT&T Servs. the judge ruled that a dialing system must use a random or sequential number generator to qualify as an ATDS.

California Telemarketing Class Action

A California court has dismissed a TCPA class action against Postmates, alleging that the food and goods courier service sent unsolicited texts offering jobs to consumers. In Rogers v. Postmates, Inc., the court ruled the texts were not sent by Postmates, nor was Postmates liable for the company that sent the texts, BirdDog Media, LLC.

Washington Telemarketing Class Action

A Washington court affirmed the ruling in Dennis v. Amerigoup Washington, Inc., declaring that calls from Washington State’s Medicaid programs to individuals who qualify for benefits were for “emergency purposes” and exempt from the TCPA cell phone call ban.

In Dennis v. Amerigroup Washington, Inc., the calls alerted recipients of renewal deadlines, and the court noted that calls related to healthcare can qualify under the TCPA emergency exemption due to the “myriad ramifications of a sudden loss of insurance coverage.”

See how the Gryphon platform can provide an end-to-end solution for marketing success and avoiding costly TCPA fines.