A California man recently filed a lawsuit against Marriott Vacations, alleging that the company’s policy of monitoring and recording calls violates California phone call recording laws.

The plaintiff, Joshua G., alleges that in May 2017, he called Marriott Vacations and spoke to an employee with customer service on what he believed to be a confidential and private call. He says that he was never alerted to the recording before or while it took place, and he never gave consent (express or implied) for the recording.

Later, Joshua claims that he learned that Marriott Vacations has a policy of recording and monitoring all of its incoming telephone calls, including the one he made in May 2017, but does not disclose this to all of its callers.

Joshua alleges that this is a clear violation of California phone call recording laws, and has brought a class action lawsuit against the company.

Class members included in the suit are California residents or who placed phone calls to Marriott Vacations between May 1, 2017 and April 15, 2018 and spoke to an employee, but were not warned of the call being recorded. Those who may or may not be residents, but placed such a call from a California area code, are also included as part of the class.

Was your phone call with a customer service center like Marriott Vacations recorded without your permission, violating California phone call recording laws? More and more people are reporting that their phone calls with businesses, especially with customer service lines, are being recorded without their permission.

California Phone Call Recording Laws

California privacy law is stricter than these laws at the federal level—in fact, the right to privacy is included in the California Constitution as an inalienable right for its residents. California privacy law has a particular focus on protecting residents from being recorded without their permission.

There are many reasons a business may want to record phone calls. Companies often record calls as part of their policy for quality assurance or employee evaluation purposes.

This is a perfectly acceptable practice, and completely legal as long as the business takes the proper steps to warn the consumer that the recording is taking place. This gives consumers the chance to opt out of the recording entirely.

After being warned that a phone call is being recorded (both inbound and outbound calls are included under this privacy law) simply staying on the line implies consent to recording. Similarly, hanging up implies denial of consent.

If consumers aren’t warned at all about the phone recording, however, California phone call recording laws may have been violated.

A number of major companies are being investigated for illegal call recording practices, including the Hunter Boots customer service line, American Airlines, Tupperware and more.

Filing a Call Recording Lawsuit

While California phone call recording laws protect anyone who called or was called by someone else while in the state of California, this particular class action investigation applies specifically to California residents.

If you believe that a company is engaging in a practice of illegally recording phone calls without proper disclosure, you may be able to file a lawsuit under California phone call recording laws.

The California Phone Call Recording Lawsuit is Case No. BC704099, in the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles.