Charter Communications TCPA Lawsuit Accuses Company of Unlawful Calls to Home, Cell Phones

A California man has filed a Charter Communications TCPA lawsuit after repeated unauthorized calls were made to both his home and cell phones.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) restricts phone solicitations and the use of automated phone dialing mechanisms.

Anton E. says in the complaint that he received multiple calls that began with a prerecorded message that was dialed by an automatic telephone dialing system. He claims he never granted Charter Communications permission to solicit him through telemarketing measures.

Charter currently does business as Spectrum, and previously did business as Time Warner Cable.

Charter Communications TCPA Lawsuit Is Not First of Its Kind

Judge Easterbrook of the Seventh Circuit offered this explanation in a TCPA case pertaining to calls similar to those in the Charter Communications TCPA lawsuit:

“The Telephone Consumer Protection Act…is well known for its provisions limiting junk-fax transmissions. A less-litigated part of the Act curtails the use of automated dialers and prerecorded messages to cell phones, whose subscribers often are billed by the minute as soon as the call is answered – and routing a call to voicemail counts as answering the call. An automated call to a landline phone can be an annoyance; an automated call to a cell phone adds expense to annoyance.”

Those were Judge Easterbrook’s words from Soppet v. Enhanced Recovery Co., LLC, 679 F.3d 637, 638 (7^th Cir. 2012).

History of Calls to Anton

Anton said Charter Communications called him from an 866 number on the morning of June 13, 2015. He also received a call to his home phone by Charter from an 800 number on the evening of June 15, 2015.

Charter’s own internal computer system has notes entered on May 18, 2015 that say, “spoke with Mr. Ewing upset that he received solicitation call when he is on the do not call list.”

“Angelica” called Anton on Dec. 9, 2015 and said she was from Time Warner Cable Business Class. She called from a number that started with area code 469, but gave her call back number as an 866 phone number.

“Angelica” was actually employed by a third-party company hired by Time Warner Cable exclusively to conduct telemarketing operations. Anton “had previously demanded that Time Warner Cable never call him again.”

Back in July 27, 2015, Anton had sent an email to the Corporate Office of the President to make it clear that he did not wish to receive any more solicitation calls. Time Warner Cable responded to his email on July 28, 2015.

The Charter Communications TCPA lawsuit says that each call started with a pre-recorded voice message robo-dialed to Anton, and that it took more than three seconds from the time he answered to when the message began to speak or play.

“At least two of the illegal telemarketing solicitation calls placed by Defendants to Plaintiff occurred prior to 8am in the morning in violation of the Telephone Sales Rule and in violation of the DNC Registry,” claims the complaint.

The Charter Communications TCPA lawsuit claims that Anton has “suffered an invasion of privacy, additional phone charges, lost minutes on phone plan and additional utility bills” as a result of the illegal calls to both his home and cell phones.

The Charter Communications TCPA Lawsuit is Case No. 3:17-cv-00222-BEN-WVG, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

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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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