Liberty Mutual Calls Numbers Listed on National DNC Registry: Class Action
Liberty Mutual violates the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by placing unwanted solicitation calls to consumers’ residential phone numbers that are listed on the national do not call registry, alleged Adam Ward’s class action Friday (docket 1:24-cv-10526) in U.S. District Court…
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for Massachusetts in Boston. The Cocoa, Florida, resident listed his number on the national DNC registry in August 2005 “to afford himself the protections” against “invasive and irritating telemarketing calls,” said his complaint. But Liberty Mutual nevertheless engaged in a telemarketing campaign directed toward Ward “in furtherance of its efforts to sell him an insurance policy he did not want or need,” it said. Ward didn’t provide express written consent or any consent for the company’s solicitation calls and texts, it said. Before the telemarketing campaign, the plaintiff didn’t have any established business relationship with Liberty Mutual, it said, saying he received a total of seven calls and text messages from the company. He experienced “frustration, annoyance, irritation and a sense that his privacy has been invaded,” said his complaint. Without having had the benefit of discovery to show otherwise, Ward alleges Liberty Mutual “is directly liable" for the unsolicited calls and text messages at issue because they were placed or made directly by the company, it said. Alternatively, if discovery reveals that some or all of the calls or text messages were made by third parties on Liberty Mutual’s behalf, then Liberty Mutual is vicariously liable for those calls or texts, it said. The FCC’s May 2013 declaratory ruling determined that hiring a vendor that engages in TCPA wrongdoing “was not a basis for avoiding liability,” it said. The FCC ruling “rejected a narrow view of TCPA liability, including the assertion that a seller’s liability requires a finding of formal actual agency and immediate direction and control over third parties who place a telemarketing call,” said the complaint. Liberty Mutual may have hired, encouraged, permitted and enjoyed the benefits of mass telemarketing by third-party telemarketers that are currently unknown to Ward and only known to Liberty Mutual, it said. The company “ratified its agents’ violations of the TCPA by accepting leads and deriving profit from sales imitated by unlawful robocalls,” the complaint said.