CenStar Energy Class Action Lawsuit Alleges TCPA Violations

Plaintiff Glenn S. has filed a CenStar Energy class action lawsuit individually and on behalf of all those similarly situated alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

Glenn, a resident and the County of Lake, Ohio filed the CenStar Energy lawsuit against the energy corporation, a leading energy supplier for New York, New Jersey, and Ohio, in Ohio federal court. The lawsuit was filed on Jan. 22, 2018.

According to the CenStar Energy lawsuit, the company violated the TCPA by using an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) and placing “unsolicited calls to the telephones of consumers nationwide without the consent of the telephone’s owners,” the lawsuit states.

By filing the CenStar Energy lawsuit, Glenn hopes to stop the company from placing these unsolicited calls. It was on June 2, 2017 that the company placed its telemarketing call to his cellular phone, Glenn says.

He claims that after having picked up the call, he heard a pause followed by a “click,” a sound that suggests that an ATDS was used. Glenn contends that at no point did he give express consent that would allow CenStar to contact him.

According to the CenStar Energy lawsuit, Glenn “does not have a relationship with Defendant, has never provided his telephone number to Defendant, nor consented or requested that the Defendant call him or offer him products or services.”

Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)

According to Experian, Congress passed the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) in 1991 to curtail the increasing number of telephone marketing calls being made to consumers. The Act regulates text messages, unsolicited faxes, auto-dialed calls, telemarketing calls, and prerecorded calls.

The Act also provided authority to create a National-Do-Not Call List to protect consumers against telemarketing calls. Established in 2003, the registry covers all intrastate and interstate calls, providing further consumer protection.

Beginning Oct. 16, 2013, the Act also required that consumers provide express consent before a call could be made. This requirement concerns any prerecorded or autodialed calls placed to wireless numbers. According to TCPA regulations, no longer can a prior established business relationship substitute for express consent.

Further, under the Federal Communication Committee’s rules, there are also restrictions relating to telemarketing and advertisements. For example, calls made to any residential telephone subscriber prior to 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. are prohibited. Any residential telephone number of the national do-not-call registry is also off-limits.

Although there are several restrictions under the TCPA, there are also some exceptions. Some exceptions include: calls that are made for emergency purposes; calls not made for a commercial purpose; calls made by a tax-exempt nonprofit organization; a call made to deliver a “health care” message; and a call that is manually dialed and does not contain a pre-recorded message.

The CenStar Energy Lawsuit is Case No. 1:18-cv-00161-DCN, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.

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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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