Cox Class Action Filed Over Debt Collection Robocalls

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A non-customer has filed a class action lawsuit claiming that Cox Communications violated the TCPA by making debt-collecting robocalls.

Plaintiff Joanne Knapper alleges that she never signed up for services with Cox Communications, a company that provides cable, internet, and phone services.

Knapper says that despite this fact, she received 11 calls from the company, all made using a prerecorded message.

She claims that the company violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) by sending robocalls and not acquiring recipients’ prior express consent to be contacted.

Allegedly, Cox suggests that another Cox customer opened an account and gave the company Knapper’s number. Knapper countered this, claiming that Cox hasn’t produced any paperwork associated with her number.

The Cox TCPA class action lawsuit claims that the company called her with the intent to collect a debt owed to the company that she says she did not owe because she never subscribed to the company’s services.

Allegedly, she received the calls between October 2015 and February 2016. The Cox Communications robocalls class action lawsuit claims that Cox hired Neustar to analyze its phone records and identify incorrect numbers, one of which was Knapper’s number.

According to Knapper’s TCPA class action lawsuit, Neuster identified more than 600,000 wrong numbers in its data scrub for Cox, and 485,000 wrong cell phone numbers associated with residential accounts.

The plaintiff claims this indicates that the company regularly made a practice of calling many numbers, namely cell phone numbers, that were not correctly associated with an account.

“In other words [Cox] identified well over a half-million cellular telephone numbers, the subscribers to which [Cox] likely had no relationship with whatsoever, as contact numbers for its customers,” the Cox class action lawsuit alleges.

Knapper goes on to state that “at the same time, [the company] made millions of autodialed calls per year to collect on residential accounts, of which 15-20 percent were delinquent during any given month.”

According to the plaintiff this shows that Cox Communications violated the TCPA by routinely and systematically calling individuals who did not give prior express consent to be contacted by the company.

She goes on to state that the TCPA violation also occurred because the calls were placed using an automatic dialing system and a recorded message, which she states violates the TCPA’s regulations.

Knapper seeks to represent herself and a Class of consumers who received an autodialed debt collection call from Cox on a cell phone number not assigned to a Cox subscriber since March 2013.

Knapper seeks damages based on what the TCPA allows as penalties for violations, which is $500 per violation.

The plaintiff is represented by Aaron D. Radbil, James L. Davidson and Michael L. Greenwald of Greenwald Davidson Radbil PLLC.

The Cox Communications TCPA Robocalls Class Action Lawsuit is Joanne Knapper v. Cox Communications Inc., Case No. 2:17-cv-00913-SPL, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.

UPDATE: On Feb. 6, 2019, a large Class won certification in a lawsuit alleging that Cox Communications placed tens of thousands of unwanted phone calls to consumers in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

UPDATE 2: October 2019, the Cox robocall class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.

UPDATE 3: On March 29, 2020, Top Class Actions viewers started receiving checks in the mail from the Cox robocall class action settlement worth as much as $536. Congratulations to everyone who filed a 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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