Lawyers continue to craft class actions (here, here, etc.) demanding hundreds of millions or billions of dollars from businesses over what are often inadvertent or gray-area violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which bans unsolicited phone communication. Consumerist Ellen Taverna of NACA, the National Association of Consumer Advocates, finds talk of abuse “ridiculous” since at the same time phone users continue to report a large volume of (often patently unlawful and TCPA-flouting) call activity. Because how could there simultaneously be the one and the other? [Alison Frankel, Reuters] Unrelatedly, class actions over TCPA have found an especially ironic target: “The American Association of Justice, the national trade association that lobbies on behalf of plaintiffs’ lawyers seeking new ways to sue, itself got sued under the TCPA – by some of its own members. The AAJ was named in a class action lawsuit related to a blast fax sent to its members by a third-party vendor.” [Bryan Quigley, U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform]
4 Comments
I don’t want these calls, even from businesses I deal with. I don’t want politicians calling me. I don’t want charities calling me. I don’t want pollsters calling me.
Yet they do. I cannot do anything about any of these groups. At least I can tell businesses that have nothing to do with me not to call. The only real protection I have is a class-action suit. And these businesses want to take that away?
I’m about ready to jettison my phone, because over 90% of the calls I get are junk. Yet I have no recourse, even if I could afford to sue — because the junk calls invariably arrive with faked Caller ID.
Perhaps the phone companies are now making so much money from broadband that they are no longer interested in offering regular phone service? Because otherwise I would think they would care enough to fix this problem. They’re the only ones technically capable of doing so.
@jdgalt,
Speaking of fake caller IDs, my two favorites are Not In Service and SCAM. Yes, I got calls where both of those came up on the caller ID on my phone.
I have taken to simply telling charities that call: I do not give to any organization that does telephone solicitations. If I hear from you again, I will actively discourage my friends and family from contributing to your cause. Have a nice day.