Opulent Vacations Prerecorded Telemarketing Messages Class Action

Opulent Vacations, Inc. purports to offer “high-end luxury vacation homes in scenic destinations like Park City, Lake Tahoe, Palm Springs, San Diego” and other locations. It also manages real estate for those who want to turn their properties into luxury vacation rentals. The complaint for this class action alleges that Opulent also markets its goods and services by sending prerecorded messages to consumer cell phones, without the consumers’ consent, in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

The class for this action is all persons in the US who, between July 14, 2018 and July 14, 2022, received a prerecorded voice call on their telephone, from Opulent Vacations or anyone acting on its behalf, promoting or advertising Opulent’s goods or services.

The TCPA was passed in 1991 to protect consumers from the ever-increasing burden of telemarketing calls. Congress had found, the complaint says, that “automated or prerecorded telephone calls are a greater nuisance and invasion of privacy than live solicitation calls, and such calls can be costly and inconvenient.” Notably, cell phone owners are charged for incoming as well as outgoing calls, making telemarketing calls an expense for recipients.

Among other things, the TCPA forbids calling a cell phone number for telemarketing purposes, using an artificial or prerecorded voice, without getting the recipient’s prior express written consent. Regulations set out the specifics of the form this consent must take.

The plaintiff in this case, Bonita MacLaurin, received a call from Opulent on her cell phone, on or around April 22, 2022, the complaint alleges. When she answered, the complaint says, she was easily able to tell that the message she heard was prerecorded. The message constituted telemarketing, according to the complaint, because it was promoting the commercial availability of Opulent’s properties, goods, or services.

After that prerecorded call, the complaint alleges, Opulent sent two text messages to MacLaurin’s cell phone. As reproduced in the complaint, the first text message said, “Hey[,] it’s Michael. I’ll send that link I mentioned in my voice mail right now. If it’s easier[,] you can also just text me what day and time works best and I’ll get it set up.”

The second message began, “Here’s the link I mentioned in the voice mail I just left…” It provided the link, then identified it as “The link to schedule a call with the Park City Expert. Hope you have a great day!”

The complaint asserts, “At no point in time did [MacLaurin] provide [Opulent] with her express written consent to be contacted by a prerecorded marketing message.”

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Privacy
Tags: TCPA, Unsolicited Telephone Calls, Use of artificial or pre-recorded voice