Payment Processing Company Will Pay $9M to Settle TCPA Class Action

A credit card payment processing company will pay $9 million to end allegations that it violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act when a third-party advertiser autodialed millions on its behalf.

Plaintiff Abante Rooter and Plumbing Inc., a California plumbing company, alleged that Pivotal Payment Processing used EPLJ Enterprises to pepper millions of consumers with unwanted calls advertising its services. The complaint alleged that EPLJ used a prerecorded message and autodialed nearly 2 million cellphones with ads.

According to the plaintiff, Pivotal violated the TCPA which carries fines up to $1,500 per violation. The TCPA protects consumers from annoying and unwanted marketing calls.

Under the TCPA, companies are prohibited from using auto dialers and pre-recorded messages, sending unsolicited text messages, cold-calling, not providing an opt-out option for messages, calling numbers on the Do Not Call Registry, using fax machines to send unwanted ads, among other telemarketing tactics.

According to the terms of the settlement, Class Members will receive a portion of the $9 million or between $20 and $60 each. Class Members include “All individuals, entities and persons, to whom: (a) Pivotal and/or any third party acting on or allegedly acting on Pivotal’s behalf, including EPLJ Enterprises, LLC (‘EPLJ’) or Gordon Rose, made one or more nonemergency telephone calls; (b) promoting credit card processing services, other services, or goods of any kind; (c) to their cellular telephone number; (d) through the use of an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice; and (e) at any time in the period from September 26, 2012 up through and including the date of preliminary approval of the parties’ Settlement by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.”

Attorneys for the plaintiff and proposed Class will receive 25 percent of the settlement along with expenses and the lead plaintiff will receive a $25,000 award. The claims administrator will receive $1.2 million.

“The settlement is favorable to class members because they will receive compensation for the telemarketing calls they received without the expense and delay of continued litigation — and avoid the risk of no compensation at all,” the class action plaintiff states in their motion supporting the settlement agreement.

Initially, Pivotal fought the class action lawsuit, saying that the plaintiff did not have standing; however, discovery revealed that EPLJ had made 11.6 million unsolicited calls using a pre-recorded voice and auto-dialer.

Top Class Actions will post updates to this class action settlement as they become available. For the latest updates, keep checking TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter. You can also receive notifications when this article is updated by using your free Top Class Actions account and clicking the “Follow Article” button at the top of the post.

The plaintiff is represented by Steven M. Tindall of Gibbs Law Group LLP, Beth E. Terrell, Jennifer Rust Murray and Adrienne D. McEntee of Terrell Marshall Law Group PLLC, Edward A. Broderick and Anthony I. Paronich of Broderick & Paronich PC and Matthew P. McCue of the Law Office of Matthew P. McCue.

The Payment Processing Company TCPA Class Action Lawsuit is Abante Rooter and Plumbing v. Pivotal Payments Inc., Case No. 3:16-cv-05486, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: On Jan. 23, 2019, Top Class Actions viewers started receiving checks in the mail worth more than $400 from the Pivotal Payments TCPA class action settlement. Congratulations to everyone who filed a valid claim and got PAID!

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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