Chase Settles TCPA Class Action Lawsuit for $3.75M

JPMorgan Chase Bank has settled a TCPA class action lawsuit for $3.75 million that alleges the bank autodialed phone numbers that had been reassigned from former customers to new users.

Plaintiffs Michelle James and Nichole Seniuk allege that the banking giant autodialed hundreds of thousands of phone numbers that had once been associated with deposit accounts but no longer belonged to those people.

This TCPA class action lawsuit, filed last October, explains that the plaintiffs received autodialed calls to each of their cell phones, even though neither of them were customers.

According to court documents, Chase was attempting to reach customers with savings, checking or other bank accounts, but since the time that Chase had the phone numbers, the numbers had been changed.

In early 2015, as the TCPA class action lawsuit alleges, both plaintiffs got new phone and phone numbers. Between March and April 2015, Seniuk allegedly received 60 calls. James allegedly received 2 calls in one day in June 2015 and then numerous calls at other times.

Even though Seniuk told the bank she did not want to receive the calls and that she was not a customer, the calls continued.

Through discovery, the TCPA class action lawsuit states that up to 675,000 cellphone numbers from Jan. 1, 2014, through March 22, 2016 were called by Chase. All of these 675,000 numbers were wrong numbers or reassigned numbers. 

In this TCPA class action lawsuit, Seniuk and James brought claims on behalf of 2 classes. One class is comprised of those who received an unsolicited phone call from Chase over the last 4 years. The other class is those who received those same calls, but also asked for the bank to stop calling.

The settlement is for $3.75 million, of which, James and Seniuk will each receive $5,000. If all the claimants came forward in this TCPA class action lawsuit, each person would only receive $5.55 on average.

However, historical claim rates indicate that each claimant could receive closer to between $45 and $75.

“While Ms. James and Ms. Seniuk believe strongly in their claims, by any objective assessment they faced significant hurdles to obtaining classwide relief,” the consumer said. “However, despite these obstacles, Ms. James and Ms. Seniuk negotiated a settlement that compares favorably to similar TCPA class action settlements.”

Can I File a TCPA Class Action Lawsuit?

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 restricts telephone solicitations and the use of automatic telephone equipment, or autodialers. It limits businesses using artificial or prerecorded voice messages, SMS text messages and fax machines.

The TCPA provides that for each violation the recipient of the call or text can sue the caller for $500. If it is a willful violation, the caller can be sued for 3 times that amount, $1,500, for each violation.

In 2013, new rules went into effect prohibiting companies from calling or texting customers without prior express written consent. The FCC also ruled that even if a company uses a third party to place calls, the company may be held responsible.

If you received unwanted calls or text messages from a company without your prior express consent, you may be able to filed a class action lawsuit.

The Chase TCPA Class Action Lawsuit is Michelle James et al. v. JPMorgan Chase Bank NA, Case No. 8:15-cv-2424, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

UPDATE: The JPMorgan Chase Bank TCPA class action settlement is now open! Click here to file a claim. 

Join a Free TCPA Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you were contacted on your cell phone by a company via an unsolicited text message (text spam) or prerecorded voice message (robocall), you may be eligible for compensation under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

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