Comcast Class Action Lawsuit Alleges Illegal Telemarketing Calls

A Comcast class action lawsuit has been filed by an ex-customer who says the company peppered him with unwanted telemarketing calls after he received a new cell phone number.

Lead plaintiff Douglas Lacy alleges that he has not been a Comcast customer since 2013 and has not agreed to receive marketing calls from the company since then.

However, the Comcast TCPA class action lawsuit alleges that Lacy has been subject to a barrage of unwanted phone calls over the past year.

Lacy claims that Comcast has violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or TCPA, not only by calling without his consent, but also by using a prerecorded voice and automatic dialing system to place these calls.

The TCPA was enacted by Congress in the 1990s to limit the use of telemarketing activities by advertisers in the U.S. The law requires that consumers provide express consent before receiving telemarketing calls.

Additionally, consumers may not be contacted using an automatic dialing system, or auto dialer that uses a machine or software to place calls. Further, the TCPA prohibits the use of prerecorded messages. The Act has been extended to text messaging, as well as fax machines.

According to the Comcast class action lawsuit, the problems began when the plaintiff received a new cell phone in January 2018.

Lacy says that in the short time he has owned the phone he has been subject to 143 calls from Comcast, along with 55 voice messages.

“Plaintiff received at least 54 voicemails from the number 1-800-266-2278,” alleges the Comcast class action lawsuit. “All of these voicemails are identical. Each voicemail delivers the following message with an artificial or prerecorded voice: ‘Hi, this is Comcast calling with an important message. Please call us back at 1-800-266-2278 to learn more.’”

Lacy contends that he contacted the number to find that Comcast was looking for an entirely different person.

Despite telling customer service representatives at the company that the phone was now his and they had the wrong number, Lacy says that he continued to receive the calls.

“Comcast’s calls and voicemails intruded upon and occupied the capacity of Plaintiff’s cellular phone and depleted the battery of Plaintiff’s cellular phone,” alleges the Comcast TCPA class action lawsuit.

“The calls temporarily seized and trespassed upon Plaintiff’s use of his cellular phone, and caused him to divert attention away from other activities to address the calls and voicemails. The clutter of Comcast’s calls and voicemails also impaired the usefulness of the call log feature of Plaintiff’s cellular phone.”

The Comcast class action lawsuit seeks to represent a nationwide Class of consumers who received unwanted calls from the company using an automatic dialing system and/or a prerecorded voice.

The plaintiff is seeking statutory damages along with an injunction stopping Comcast from making these telemarketing calls.

Statutory damages under the TCPA can be steep; $500 for each call that the company negligently placed in violation of the Act and up to $1,500 for each call that the company placed in willful or knowing violation of the law.

Lacy is represented by Beth E. Terrell and Jennifer Rust Murray of Terrell Marshall Law Group PLLC and Daniel C. Girard and Simon S. Grille of Girard Sharp LLP.

The Comcast Telemarketing Calls Class Action Lawsuit is Lacy v. Comcast Corporation, Case No. 3:19-cv-05007, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

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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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