Is Teva Footwear Call Recording Without Consent?

Teva Footwear is among a group of companies that are currently under investigation for possibly call recording without consent in California. Other named companies facing investigation for possibly violating California call recording statutes are Baja Fresh, TGI Friday’s, AeroMexico, AMF Bowling, Casino Royale, and Miele.

There are several states with two-party call recording laws. This means that permission must be obtained by both the giver and receiver of the phone call prior to any recording of the conversation; no recording without consent is allowed.

The states with this type of two-party law are California, Washington, Illinois, Florida, Maryland, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Montana, Hawaii, and Massachusetts.

California generates more lawsuits overall for call recording without consent. It may be that residents of this state are just generally more informed of their rights in this respect, or more willing to press the issue in court with resulting litigation.

Two-Party Consent Laws

Two-party consent laws apply to all types of calls, whether they are marketing or customer service in nature and whether they are inbound or outbound.

Most consumers, when calling a business customer service 1-800 number, have heard the pre-recorded disclaimer stating, “This phone call may be recorded for quality-control purposes.” Courts have ruled that this is an acceptable method of notifying the caller of the intent to record the conversation. Customers that choose to remain on hold after hearing this disclosure and are eventually patched through to an agent have given their permission theoretically by default.

Consumer advocates are looking into whether Teva Footwear has failed to offer such a pre-recorded disclaimer on a customer service line. Such an oversight on the shoe merchant’s part could expose them to liability under California privacy laws.

Call recording without consent in the State of California can cost up to $5,000 per infraction, adding up to millions of dollars when considered cumulatively.

So how does a business know the state their customer is calling from? Given the number of states that have laws forbidding call recording without consent, it is within the realm of business “best practices” to always have a recorded disclaimer associated with their customer service lines.

It should not take several voice mail choices before such a disclaimer is voiced to the inbound caller. Disclaimers should not be buried deep in a telephone routing system.

Another consideration for any business would be realize that the best voice mail system can and does malfunction and nothing should be left to chance. It could never hurt to have the customer service agent reiterate the desire of the company to record a telephone conversation for “quality-control” purposes.

Teva Footwear, Baja Fresh, TGI Friday’s, AeroMexico, AMF Bowling, Casino Royale, and Miele might suffer the consequences if they have engaged in call recording without consent.

Do you feel that your rights have been violated under the California two-party call recording laws by any of these companies or any others? If so, you may qualify to participate free of charge in an ongoing call recording class action investigation.

Join a FREE California Call Recording Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you live in California and you did not receive a warning when calling a toll-free number, your call may have been recorded in violation of California law, and you may be entitled to compensation. See if you qualify to file a California call recording class action lawsuit.

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