Call recording is a common practice for many businesses who use the recordings to improve customer service. However, that doesn’t mean it is always legal, and a number of businesses, including Dermalogica, are currently being investigated for phone call recording practices. Eligible consumers may be able to seek a California call recording settlement.

You’re probably familiar with the phrase “This call will be monitored for quality assurance,” or something similar, indicating that call recording is about to take place.

Call recording can be perfectly legal. When done properly, recording phone calls can help businesses gather data to improve the overall customer service experience. But there are certain steps companies must take to ensure call recording practices obey both state and federal laws.

The main rule differentiating states’ call recording practices is consent law. There are currently 38 states with a single-party consent law, which means that only one party on a call needs to give consent for the recording to take place. In the remaining 12 states, however, two-party consent is required, meaning that all parties on the call are required to be informed about the recording and consent to it before it can begin.

However, specific call recording laws can vary from state to state. In Hawaii, two-party consent is only required if the recording device is in a private location. In Illinois, two-party consent is required for phone recordings, but not for private electronic communication, according to the Digital Media Law Project.

What constitutes proper notice and consent for recording is fairly straightforward. A caller gives notice that the call is being recorded simply by stating something like “This call may be monitored or recorded.” Consent doesn’t even require a verbal response and is instead simply implied by whether or not the other party chooses to remain on the line after being warned that it’s being recorded.

California’s phone call recording laws are particularly stringent. The state constitution even includes its privacy laws.

In 2016, Wells Fargo agreed to pay $8.5 million in a California call recording settlement. The lawsuit, filed by the state attorney general, alleged that the banking giant had failed to provide call recording announcements to customers in California. Similar lawsuits have been filed against other major companies, including Capital One, Bass Pro Outdoor, and the Cosmopolitan Hotel, among many others. In some cases, phone call recording lawsuits have resulted in multi-million-dollar California call recording settlement agreements.

A number of companies, including Dermalogica, are currently under investigation for potential call recording violations.

If you live in California and were not warned about a phone call recording after calling a business, including Dermalogica, that call may have been recorded in violation of California law, and possibly entitle you to compensation. Pursuing litigation over phone recording laws may not only result in a financial award, it can also help enforce these laws.

This class action lawsuit investigation applies specifically to California residents, however California’s phone recording laws protect anyone who was in the state when an illegal recording was made.