On December 8, 2017, a proposed class of consumers filed class claims against the Marriott Vacation Club in California federal court arguing that the timeshare company has violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”).
In the complaint, named plaintiff Cheri Astrahan claims that Marriott Vacation Club has been making unsolicited calls to her cell phone for over a year, despite the fact that plaintiff’s cell phone number has been on the national “do not call” registry for almost 15 years. Defendant Marriott Vacation Club had been making these calls with the use of an automatic telephone dialing system followed by either an artificial or prerecorded voice greeting. Plaintiff argues that she did not give the Marriott Vacation Club consent to call her cell phone and that she went so far as to actively tell the defendant to stop making soliciting calls to her.
The proposed class suit is seeking $500 in statutory damages for each of Marriott’s negligent violations of the TCPA and up to $1,500 for every knowing and willful violation of the TCPA. The complaint contends that the class will be nationwide and therefore will be large enough to have damages exceeding $5 million. According to the terms of the 2005 Class Action Fairness Act, $5 million is the threshold amount of damages required to gain federal court jurisdiction.
The case is: Cheri Astrahan v. Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corp., d/b/a Marriott Vacation Club, Case No.: 8:17-cv-02139, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
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