Spark Energy's Recorded Marketing Calls Violate TCPA: Class Action
Spark Energy is engaged in a scheme to sell natural gas and energy services "via cold calls” to residential phone numbers on the national do not call registry, alleged Brian Clark's Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action Tuesday (docket 4:24-cv-00568)…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
in U.S. District Court for Northern California in Oakland. Spark Energy made 10 calls to Clark’s home phone number in Alameda County, California, between March 3 and March 21 trying to pitch services using recorded messages, the complaint said. The plaintiff never gave Spark or any other person or affiliate associated with the company written permission to call him, and his home phone number has been registered on the national DNC registry since December 2007, it said. Clark received a voice message from “Michelle,” requesting a callback about Clark’s natural gas bill, the complaint said. “Upon listening to the voice messages, it was clear that ‘Michelle’ was an artificial voice and not a natural person,” the complaint said. Subsequent messages used “nearly identical wording” and “the same monotone speaking structure,” showing that they were recorded messages “and not a call from a live person,” it said. On March 23, Clark called the callback number, 888-928-3199, and “was immediately connected to Spark,” it said. The defendant may have made more violative calls to Clark’s line that he wasn’t able to log or identify at the time. He includes claims for those calls, “even though the specifics of the dates and times are unknown at this time without the aid of discovery,” it said. Clark claims violations of the TCPA for calls to a number on the DNC and for recorded marketing calls to residential numbers. He seeks awards of $500 for each violation and $1,500 for each willful violation, plus injunctive relief, attorneys’ fees and legal costs.