Citibank Harassing Phone Calls Lawsuit Filed Alleging TCPA Violations

A Citibank harassing phone calls lawsuit is recently filed against the financial giant by a woman alleging the company of violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

Plaintiff Lisa H. files the Citibank harassing phone calls lawsuit in California federal court. The lawsuit was filed on May 11, 2018, demanding a jury trial.

According to the Citibank harassing phone calls lawsuit, Lisa is a resident of the city of Vista, in San Diego County. She says that sometime before 2018, she incurred financial obligations to Citibank regarding a credit card account.

She says that she allegedly fell behind on payments related to the account. During a telephone conversation Lisa had with one of Citibank’s representatives, she says she instructed the representative to contact her attorney to resolve the issue she had with her Citibank account. She further alleges that she asked the representative to make note that she would like to cease all contact with Citibank.

However, despite this request, Lisa claims Citibank continued to contact her directly on her cellular phone almost 20 times between April 7, 2018, and May 11, 2018, in an attempt to collect on the debt.

According to the Citibank harassing phone calls lawsuit, these acts committed by Citibank harassed, oppressed, and abused Lisa by causing her telephone to ring constantly and continuously. The intent of these acts was to “annoy, abuse, and harass” her through the collection of her debt, the Citibank harassing phone calls lawsuit states.

Additionally, Citibank is said to have used an “automatic telephone dialing system” to call Lisa despite the request to cease all communication, an alleged violation of the TCPA. As a result of these telephone calls, Lisa says that she suffered and incurred “pain and suffering, humiliation, anxiety, loss of sleep, emotional distress, and defamation of character.”

Overview: Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)

Congress passed the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) in 1991 to help limit the growing number of telephone marketing calls being made to the American people. The TCPA helps regulate unsolicited faxes, auto-dialed calls, telemarketing calls, prerecorded calls, and lastly text messages.

Additionally, a National-Do-Not Call List was also enacted to protect consumers against unwanted telephone calls and other annoyances. The National-Do-Not Call List was established in 2003 and covers all intrastate and interstate calls. This further allows consumers more added protection against telemarketers and debt collectors.

An added regulation was made to the TCPA on Oct. 16, 2013, that required companies and businesses to obtain prior “express consent” from consumers prior to any calls being made. According to the new rule, no longer can a prior established business relationship allow for prerecorded and auto-dialed calls to be made.

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

The Citibank Harassing Phone Calls Lawsuit is Case No. 3:18-cv-00926-JLS-JMA, 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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