Toyota, Sirius TCPA Plaintiffs Seek Class Action Consolidation

Plaintiffs in a recent text spam class action lawsuit against Sirius XM Holdings have petitioned the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to consolidate their unwanted cellphone calls class action lawsuits and other in Illinois federal court.

When lawsuits involve complex issues affecting large numbers of people, sometimes the federal court system uses multidistrict litigation (MDL) to better manage the lawsuits.

In multidistrict litigation, multiple civil lawsuits that share a common issue are transferred to a single district court. That court then handles all discovery and pretrial proceedings for the lawsuits. The goal of MDL is to conserve resources and foster consistent court rulings across different lawsuits that involve similar legal issues.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) class action lawsuit filed against Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. alleges the automaker gave customer information to Sirius XM Holdings Inc., which made a number of unsolicited phone calls to the plaintiff’s cellphone in violation to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

According to the TCPA lawsuit, plaintiff Brian T. claims he and others were victims of an information-sharing agreement between Toyota and Sirius. The alleged agreement enables Toyota to share customer data with Sirius in exchange for temporary free trials of Sirius’ radio entertainment services in new and preowned cars Toyota sells.

The TCPA lawsuit claims that Sirius then used that information to make unwanted cell phone calls to Brian’s cellphone, which is a violation of the TCPA.

“Sirius makes these telemarketing calls in order to convert the recent purchasers of these Toyota vehicles into paid subscribers of Sirius,” according to the TCPA lawsuit.

According to the unwanted cellphone call class action lawsuit, Brian bought a Chevy truck from a Texas Toyota dealership in September 2014, after which, the he alleges, Sirius made more than 30 calls to his cellphone using an automatic telephone dialing system, a TCPA violation.

Brian claims in his TCPA class action lawsuit that none of the sales documents from the Toyota dealership included a warning that Brian’s information might be given to a third-party like Sirius, and Sirius never sought or received his consent for the calls. When Brian asked Sirius call representatives how they obtained his information, they were allegedly forthright about having obtained it from Toyota, the TCPA lawsuit states.

Similarly, Brian claimed a Toyota dealership employee assured him it was “common knowledge” that the information would be passed along. According to the TCPA class action lawsuit, Brian was unaware of a free trial of Sirius’ services included in the purchase of his truck, and did not become aware of the availability of the service until he began receiving the unwanted call phone calls.

Even though Sirius is responsible for the unwanted cell phone calls, Toyota is vicariously liable for the TCPA violations because the company provided the customer information, the class action lawsuit states.

Unwanted Cell Phone Calls and TCPA Protection

The TCPA makes it illegal for advertisers to make calls using an automatic telephone dialing system or artificial or prerecorded voices to cellular phones without the consent of the recipient and provides a statutory fine for unsolicited text message advertisements ranging from $500 to $1,500 per violation.

The TCPA Class Action Lawsuit is Case No. 3:15-cv-00044, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

Join a Free TCPA Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

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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