Berkshire Hathaway Automotive Internal Do Not Call List TCPA Class Action

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), says the complaint for this class action, was passed “to help prevent unwanted telephone calls and solicitations, provide power to consumers to prevent unwanted solicitations, and rein in unrestricted telemarketing.” Unfortunately, the complaint alleges that Berkshire Hathaway Automotive, Inc. (BHA) still makes unwanted and unlawful telemarketing calls to consumers.

The complaint notes the private rights of action for two different kinds of conduct related to telemarketing.

First, the complaint says, the TCPA “prohibits initiating a telemarketing call using an automatic telephone dialing system without the prior express written consent of the called party.”

Second, the complaint says, TCPA regulations require telemarketing companies “to keep a written policy, available on demand, for maintaining a do-not-call list, train personnel engaged in telemarketing on the existence and use of its internal do-not-call list, and record and honor ‘do not call’ requests for no less than five years from the time the request is made.”

Both plaintiffs in this case claim they were called multiple times by BHA.

Plaintiff Kerri Wolski bought two vehicles from BHA, in 2011 and 2015, respectively. However, she terminated her relationship with the company when it did not honor a warranty for one of the vehicles. She did not have any contact with BHA for two years.

In August 2018, she began to receive calls with promotional offers for new vehicles. Wolski asked the company to stop calling her.

Wolski estimates she received three to four calls per week, for a period of around seven months. Her wife also contacted the company by phone, by e-mail, and online, asking it to stop calling. Eventually a manager called, apologized, and acknowledged that the calls should not have been made.

Plaintiff Brian Goodell bought a vehicle from BHA, around March 2017, then had no further transactions with the company. However, in July 2019, he began to receive telephone solicitations from it. The complaint alleges he received at least ten calls. On many of these occasions, he asked the company to stop calling him, but the calls continued.

After he posted an online review of the dealership, he says, the calls stopped.

The complaint alleges that both series of calls were made with an automatic dialing system, because of the telltale “click and pause” the plaintiffs heard when they picked up.

Two classes have been defined for this action.

• The Dialer Class is all persons in the US to whose cell phones BHA placed a call, between August 23, 2016 and the date of trial in this case, using substantially similar equipment or software to that used in this case, without the persons’ prior express written consent.
• The Policy Class is all persons in the US to whose telephones BHA placed (or had placed) two or more telemarketing calls within a twelve-month period.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Privacy
Tags: Failure to Place on Internal Do Not Call List, TCPA, Unsolicited Cell Phone Calls, Use of Automatic-Capable Dialer