DirectTV asks to deny class certification in robocall suit

Update:

• DirecTV asked a West Virginia federal judge to deny class certification in a lawsuit that claims the company spams customers with unwanted marketing calls.
• DirecTV claims it was not prohibited from calling the named plaintiffs and that the scope of the proposed class is indeterminable, according to Law360.
• The company says it is impossible to determine whether each alleged call is similar enough to qualify for a potential class. 
• In February 2021, West Virginia District Judge John Preston Bailey ruled that DirecTV could not settle the claims outside of court through arbitration. 

(Feb. 15, 2021)

DirecTV cannot settle claims it spams customers with unwanted marketing calls through arbitration, a district judge has ruled for the second time.

The latest opinion, filed by West Virginia District Judge John Preston Bailey Friday, calls DirecTV’s move to settle a class action lawsuit’s claims outside of court “unconscionable” and “absurd.”

The lead plaintiff, Diana Mey, has been fighting DirecTV since 2017 over alleged violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. 

Mey reports getting marketing calls promoting DirecTV packages after signing up for an AT&T wireless plan in 2012, despite being on the Do Not Call Registry. 

Mey never signed up for DirecTV or agreed to do any business with the company but her contact information was used anyway, according to the class action. 

In her initial complaint, Mey argued this happened after AT&T acquired DirecTV in a $49 billion deal. DirecTV says Mey and other customers agreed to settle disputes through an arbitration clause written in wireless contract fine print. 

Mey isn’t alone in her claims. A separate class action filed in West Virginia District Court has similar claims the DirecTV/AT&T merger had customer service agents pushing for unwanted satellite TV services.  

In that case, DirecTV was allegedly partnering with two telemarketing companies and using automatic dialing systems to reach unsuspecting customers. 

In Mey’s class action lawsuit, West Virginia District Court first denied DirecTV’s motion to compel arbitration. DirecTV appealed, escalating the case to the Fourth Circuit, which ruled to send the matter back to federal court in West Virginia. 

The higher court needed more detail on the “unconscionability” finding, Judge Bailey said in his order denying arbitration. 

“Arbitration is, foundationally, ‘a matter of consent,’ … and we may not foist arbitration on a party who has not agreed to it under cover of a presumption,” he said.

He added Mey and other reasonable AT&T customers would never agree to something written so broadly, covering all of a corporation’s subsidiaries.  

The clause “overbroad, absurd and unconscionable, and far exceeds anything contemplated by Congress.” 

Top Class Action is tracking class action lawsuits involving claims of unwanted marketing calls. These claims could be found in violation of federal law. See if you qualify.  

Do you have an AT&T mobile plan or DirecTV? Have you received unwanted marketing calls regarding these services? Let us know in the comments below. 

Counsel representing the plaintiffs in this class action lawsuit are John W. Barrett, Jonathan R. Marshall, Sharon F. Iskra, Benjamin Hogan of Bailey & Glasser LLP; Anthony Paronich of Paronich Law PC, Edward A. Broderick of Broderick Law PC, Matthew P. McCue of The Law Office Of Matthew P. McCue, and Ryan McCune Donovan of Hissam Forman Donovan Ritchie PLCC. 

The DirectTV AT&T Arbitration Class Action Lawsuit is Mey, et al. v. DirecTV, LLC, Case No. 5:17-cv-00179, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia. 

Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:

• Were You Penalized for Failing to Return DirecTV Equipment?
• NFL Sunday Ticket Antitrust Lawsuit to Move Forward After Supreme Court Declines Review
• Charter Wants Unwanted Calls Class Action Lawsuit Dialed Out
• DirecTV Violated TCPA With Robocalls, Class Action Says