Frontier Communications Settles TCPA Class Action Lawsuit for $11 Million

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After more than three years of litigation, Frontier Communications Corp. has agreed to settle a proposed class action for $11 million, resolving allegations it illegally made thousands of telemarketing calls to consumers without their consent to generate sales.

Plaintiff Diana Mey filed the proposed class action lawsuit against Frontier Communications in 2013, alleging that, in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, she received numerous solicitation robocalls on behalf of the telecommunications company, despite the fact that her cell phone number is listed on the National Do Not Call Registry.

The DNC Registry allows consumers to enter their telephone numbers on a federal database and effectively opt-out of receiving telemarketing calls.

Mey filed the case on behalf of herself and all others who received similar calls from Frontier within the last four years, that were in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

One year into litigation, Frontier offered Mey $6,400 to abandon the lawsuit in an effort to cut off Class liability. Mey rejected Frontier’s offer and the company then moved to dismiss the case, contending that Mey’s rejection of their offer rendered her claims moot.

The Court disagreed with Frontier’s argument, holding that “a mere offer to settle . . . does not moot a plaintiff’s claim even when it proposes to afford her everything she is asking for.”

On June 3, 2016, the telecommunications company filed a renewed motion to dismiss, asserting that Mey’s complaint should be tossed because she did not suffer a sufficiently concrete injury in fact for standing under the U.S. Supreme Court’s Spokeo ruling.

In December, the parties were able to come to an agreement. Under the terms of the Frontier Communications TCPA settlement, eligible Class Members include any person or entity who received a cell phone call placed using an automatic telephone dialing system, or who received two or more calls in a 12-month period on a number that was on the National Do Not Call Registry for more than 30 days at the time of the calls.

According to court documents presented by Mey, the Class consists of 36,219 unique telephone numbers. The settlement Class will share the $11 million common fund, with each Class Member to receive at least $90 and the balance of the fund to be divided on a per-call basis to Class Members who received multiple calls.

Any funds remaining after the settlement distribution will be donated to a cy press charity. The parties have agreed to designate Connecticut Legal Services Inc. as the cy press recipient.

Mey characterized the proposed class action settlement as “fair, reasonable and adequate” in her motion for preliminary approval for the deal.

“In the absence of this class settlement, the individual litigation of this large number of claims would consume a vast amount of judicial resources in trial courts across the United States,” Mey stated in her motion. “Class settlement of this dispute is by far the most efficient and effective means to resolve the claims of the named plaintiff and absent class members.”

Mey also noted that in the context of TCPA settlements, the payment to Class Members in this case exceed settlements that have received court approval. She specifically referenced four TCPA settlements reached since 2010 that have offered Class Members payments ranging from $15 to $61.49.

“If Frontier were to succeed on any of its defenses, including that the class could not be certified, settlement class members would recover nothing,” Mey said. “In light of the risks of ongoing litigation and the modest amount of the individual statutory recovery relative to the costs of individual litigation, the settlement in this case is substantive and fair.”

Mey is represented by Anthony I. Paronich and Edward A. Broderick of Broderick & Paronich PC, John W. Barrett of Bailey & Glasser LLP, Nicholas J. Cicale of CEnergy Law and Matthew P. McCue of The Law Offices of Matthew P. McCue PC.

The Frontier Communications TCPA Class Action Lawsuit is Mey v. Frontier Communications Corp., Case No. 3:13-cv-01191, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut.

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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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