Romano’s Macaroni Grill may be recording customer service calls without the permission or knowledge of the consumer. The U.S. restaurant chain—which has locations in 24 states—may engage in call recording practices that violate California privacy laws.

In California, there are particularly strict privacy laws in place to protect consumers from invasive call recording practices. No person or business is allowed to record a phone call if they have not received the consent of all those on the call. Despite the law, a number of companies may be recording phone calls with consumers without warning them and thus giving them the chance to opt out.

If you believe your call with Romano’s Macaroni Grill customer service or another company was recorded without your permission, you may be able to join a class action lawsuit investigation. Some companies hit with call recording litigation have settled lawsuits for millions of dollars.

Romano’s is not the only company under investigation for potential call recording violations; other major companies being investigated for similar practices include American Airlines, Dermalogica, and more.

California Call Recording

While there are privacy laws at the federal level, California privacy law includes a focus on protecting consumers from being recorded without their permission.

Of course, it is not necessarily illegal to record phone calls—and in fact, many businesses make call recording part of their policy for quality assurance or employee evaluation purposes. This can be completely legal, provided all parties on the call are warned that the recording is taking place. This allows consumers the opportunity to either grant consent or opt out of the call recording entirely.

A verbal yes or no isn’t necessary to grant or deny consent for call recording. Instead, consumers can indicate their choice to opt out by hanging up the call or staying on the line to imply consent to be recorded. If that choice is not given (that is, the consumer is not alerted to the recording) then their privacy rights may have been violated.

Call recording only becomes a problem when consumers aren’t given these kinds of warnings but suspect that the call is being recorded anyway. A number of major companies’ phone call practices are being investigated for illegal call recording practices, including Romano’s Macaroni Grill customer service.

Filing a Call Recording Lawsuit

While California invasion of privacy law protects 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, such as Romano’s Macaroni Grill customer service calls, you may be able to file a lawsuit under California state law.

A few major companies have been hit with lawsuits over illegally recording customer service calls. Some of these lawsuits have ended in multi-million dollar settlements.

If you are a California resident and have been subjected to Romano’s Macaroni Grill customer service recording phone calls without your consent, you may be able to seek compensation by participating in a California call recording class action lawsuit investigation.