Ally Financial Robocalls Lawsuit Alleges Telephone Consumer Protection Act Violations

A Florida man has filed a Ally Financial robocalls lawsuit, claiming that the corporation’s repeated robocalls to his telephone between 2014 and 2018 violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

Plaintiff Anthony P. says that he began to receive phone calls from an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) used by Ally Financial on or about October 2014. These automated calls, also known as robocalls, were in reference to a debt that Anthony alleges he paid on July 14, 2014.

Upon receiving these automated calls, Anthony says he advised the bank that his debt had been repaid, and asked not to be contacted by their ATDS again. According to the TCPA, corporations are not permitted to continue to use robocalls to contact consumers after consent to do so has been revoked. Despite this, the Ally Financial robocalls lawsuit claims that the corporation continued to call Anthony at least 80 times over the next four years.

The Ally Financial robocalls lawsuit alleges that Ally Financial harassed Anthony for a period of four years using illegal robocalls to attempt to collect a debt that was already paid. Anthony claims that the persistent calls were aggravating, annoying, and a waste of his time. Additionally, Anthony says that these phone calls depleted the battery life of his phone, and used up minutes on his cell phone plan.

The Ally Financial robocalls lawsuit says that Anthony is not the first person to be victimized by the bank’s excessive robocalling. According to the lawsuit, the corporation has several other federal lawsuits pending against them for similar violations of the TCPA, as well as 95 previous lawsuits since 2014. The Ally Financial robocalls lawsuit also cites 108 complaints regarding “communications tactics” that have been lodged with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau since early 2015.

Understanding the TCPA

The TCPA was enacted in 1991 to protect consumer privacy, after Congress stated that robocalls were a nuisance, and an invasion of privacy worse than live solicitation calls. The TCPA requires that corporations have the affirmative express consent of the called party in order to use an ATDS to contact them. After this consent has been revoked, it is illegal to use an ATDS to contact them.

The TCPA protects consumers in many other ways. It has also made it illegal for corporations to send unsolicited text messages, send junk faxes, and call numbers that are listed on the National Do Not Call Registry or on the company’s internal do-not-call list. Corporations must also provide an option to opt out of receiving texts or automated calls. It also generally prohibits corporations from calling consumers before 8 a.m. and after 9 p.m.

Robocall Lawsuits

Consumers who have been subject to illegal robocalls may be eligible to receive between $500 to $1,500 in damages for each violation. Many class action lawsuits have been filed against various companies for TCPA violations, including Ally Financial, Bank of America, Capital One, Citibank, Chase Bank, Discover, Dish Network, Rite-Aid, Verizon Wireless, Wal-Mart, Wells Fargo, and more.

The Ally Financial Robocalls Lawsuit is Case No. 8:18-cv-02901-EAK-AEP in the U.S. District Court Middle District of Florida Tampa Division.

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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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