Nissan Class Action Alleges Unlawful Phone Call Recording

A class action lawsuit filed against Nissan North America Inc. alleges that the auto manufacturer unlawfully records its customers’ telephone calls to the company without their knowledge or permission.

According to the complaint, California law “prohibits one party to a telephone call from intentionally recording the same conversation with the knowledge or consent of the other while the person being recorded is on a cellular phone.” That is precisely what Nissan is accused of doing in this complaint.

“Defendant continues to violate Penal Code § 632.7 by impermissibly recording its telephone conversations with California residents while said residents are on cellular telephones or cordless landlines,” the Nissan class action asserts.

Plaintiff Dave Vaccaro of Los Angeles County says in February of 2017 Nissan called him several times on his personal cell phone. Vaccaro claims that at the end of one of the later calls, the Nissan representative told him that all calls, “including collection and sales calls, are recorded.” Vaccaro asserts that up until that point he had no idea that any of those calls were recorded by Nissan.

The class action lawsuit notes that Nissan does not use an “automated advisory” at the beginning of its calls like many companies do, notifying customers that calls may be monitored or recorded. “Such warnings are ubiquitous today,” the class action argues. Similarly, its representatives do not typically inform consumers that the calls are recorded, even though it is apparently the auto manufacturer’s common practice to do so.

Vaccaro states that he had numerous calls with Nissan over the past year. The complaint contends that he could not have brought this lawsuit sooner, because Vaccaro had no way to discover that the calls were being recorded.

“Defendant concealed from Plaintiff and members of the Class that it was recording the telephone calls,” the class action alleges. “To create the false impression in the minds of Plaintiff and those similarly situated without their knowledge or consent that they were not being recorded.”

The illegal call recording lawsuit requests certification of a Class of “[a]ll persons in California whose inbound or outbound telephone conversations were recorded without their consent by Defendant on their cellular telephone” in the past year.

The Nissan class action seeks damages for up to $5,000 per violation, or three times the amount of actual damages, whichever is higher. In addition, the lawsuit wants an injunction permanently stopping Nissan “from recording each and every oncoming and outgoing telephone conversation with [a] California resident, including Plaintiff and the Class, without their prior consent.”

Vaccaro is represented by Todd M. Friedman and Adrian R. Bacon of the Law Offices of Todd M. Friedman PC.

The Nissan Unlawful Call Recording Class Action Lawsuit is Dave Vaccaro v. Nissan North America Inc., Case No. BC 653385, in the Superior Court of California for the County of Los Angeles.