The trend of class-action lawsuits accusing companies of violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act with unwanted calls to consumers does not appear to be slowing down any time soon as a new proposed class suit against department store giant Macy’s was filed in Florida federal court on April 17, 2017. The suit accuses the company of harassing consumers with debt collection robocalls.
In the complaint, named plaintiff Deborah Clark alleges that the defendant company intentionally harassed her using prerecorded robocalls with increasing frequency beginning in November 2014. Clark claims that the calls were made on behalf of Macy’s Credit and Customer Service Inc. and that they repeatedly demanded that Clark pay the debt she owed on her Macy’s store credit card. However, Clark claims that the debt referred to in the calls belongs to her daughter, Rhonda Mercer. The plaintiff further elaborated in the complaint that she explained the situation to the defendant and in November 2015 even went so far as to explicitly revoke any perceived express consent that the defendant may have mistakenly thought it had to contact her. Clark’s requests and demands failed to halt the steady stream of calls—Plaintiff claims that she received around 50 robocalls from the defendant, sometimes several times in a single day, starting in November 2014 and continuing until present day.
Deborah Clark is certainly not alone in her distaste for aggressive robocalls. Her attorney, Billy Howard, reported to news outlets that in 2016 alone, almost 4 million complaints against robocalls were made to the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission. The class seeks statutory damages of $500 for every robocall made in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, with triple damages of up to $1,500 available through the statute.
The Case Is: Clark v. Macy's Credit and Customer Services Inc., case no.: 6:17-cv-oo692, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
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