Total Merchant Agrees to $7.5M Telemarketing Class Action Settlement

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Total Merchant has agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit accusing the credit card processor of making more than 235,000 telemarketing calls.

The modified agreement for the Total Merchant class action lawsuit was accepted by U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken.

The original Total Merchant class action settlement reached in October reportedly had numerous issue, such as vague terminology and inconsistencies.

As part of the Total Merchant class action lawsuit settlement, the defendant has to end their working relationship with Quality Merchant Services Inc., which were the ones who made the automated calls.

Both companies agreed, as part of the Total Merchant class action lawsuit settlement, that they would stop using auto-dialing system as well as prerecorded messages without getting written consent from call recipients.

The consumers in the Total Merchant class action lawsuit sought Class certification in July, but before the judge could rule on that certification motion, the parties reached the initial agreement.

The settlement Class includes individuals nationwide who got unsolicited calls between July 2013 and June 2018. The judge says that the court has found that the Total Merchant class action lawsuit settlement is fair.

Class counsel would be entitled to up to 25 percent of the total award.

The Total Merchant class action lawsuit was filed originally in July 2017 claiming that a Spitfire dialer was used to make prerecorded and autodialed calls to thousands of consumers.

The personal data collected for the phone calls in the autodialer database was purchased by Quality from an unknown database. Many of the consumers who claim they were contacted with these phone calls say they never consented to any communication from the company.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act outlines what companies can and cannot do in communicating with call recipients. It also allows consumers who believe the law has been violated to take legal action if they can show that the company has use prerecorded or autodialed calls.

If only 10 percent of the Class Members submit a claim for the Total Merchant TCPA class action settlement, each member would be able to receive up to $225.

Some Class Members in the Total Merchant class action settlement received as many as four calls and this would mean payments of up to $900.

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 plaintiffs in the Total Merchant class action lawsuit are represented by Jon B. Fougner of Fougner Law, Anthony I. Paronich and Edward A. Broderick of Broderick & Paronich PC, Matthew P. McCue of The Law Office of Matthew P. McCue, and Andrew W. Heidarpour of Heidarpour Law Firm PPC.

The Total Merchant Unwanted Telemarking Calls Class Action Lawsuit is Naiman v. Total Merchant Services Inc., Case No. 4:17-cv-03806, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: February 2019, the Total Merchant telemarketing class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.

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