Capital One Agrees to $75M TCPA Class Action Settlement

Capital One Financial Corp. and three other collection agencies named in a consolidated Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) class action lawsuit last week agreed to pay a $75.5 million settlement after facing allegations that these companies utilized automated dialing telephone equipment to contact consumers’ cellphones without their consent.

This Capital One class action settlement is said to be largest case ever settled under the TCPA.

According to the preliminary approval given by U.S. District Judge James F. Holderman, Capital One, Leading Edge Recovery Solutions LLC, Capital Management Services LP, and Alliance One Receivables Management Inc. will collectively pay $75.5 million to a class action settlement fund for eligible Class Members. Additionally, these companies will have to change their business practices of cold-calling customer’s cellphones.

According to the Capital One TCPA lawsuit, the Class includes:

“All persons within the United States who received a non-emergency telephone call from Capital One’s dialer(s) to a cellular telephone through the use of an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice in connection with an attempt to collect on a credit card debt from January 18, 2008, through  June 30, 2014, and all persons within the United States who received  a non-emergency telephone call from a Participating Vendor’s dialer(s) made on behalf of Capital One to a cellular telephone through the use of an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice in connection with an attempt to collect on a credit card debt from February 28, 2009, through June 30, 2014.”

The settlement statement for the TCPA class action lawsuit states that Capital One will pay the majority of the settlement, about $73 million. Leading Edge will contribute close to $1 million, Alliance One will pay about $1.4 million, and CMS will pay more than $24,000. None of the named companies have admitted to any wrongdoing in the in this TCPA class action lawsuit.

The Capital One TCPA Class Action Lawsuit is In Re: Capital One Telephone Consumer Protection Act Litigation, Case No. 1:12-cv-10064, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

What Is The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)?

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act was passed into law in 1991 by Congress with the intent to limit the ways in which companies could contact or solicit customers. Specifically, the TCPA restricted telephone soliciting and telemarketing made on automated telephone equipment with prerecorded or robotic voices. The TCPA also limits how and when any company can utilize an automated dialing system to leave computerized voice messages or text messages on the home phones or cellphones of clients, patients, and other consumers.

Additionally, the TCPA mandates that companies and solicitors to honor the National Do Not Call Registry, which all consumers are free to enroll in at any time.

Capital One is not the only company facing TCPA class action claims for allegedly violating consumers rights guaranteed under the TCPA. Hundreds of TCPA class action lawsuits have been filed in the United States in just the past year by various consumers.