Cruise Line Telemarketing Robocalls Settlement Reached

Three major cruise lines have reached a settlement over claims based on telemarketing robocalls that led to litigation. The robocalls allegedly contacted potential customers repeatedly to promote cruise packages.

In total, over 275,000 consumers are in the national Class of people who received the disruptive robocalls.

The claims involved a travel agency, Resort Marketing Group Inc. Consumers said that they were contacted over and over with offers of special cruise-related promotions. The prerecorded calls were allegedly placed on behalf of the cruise lines Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian. The cruise lines claim that RMG made those calls without cruise line knowledge.

The settlement also includes payment for attorneys’ fees and a $25,000 incentive award for the lead plaintiff. The suit was originally filed in 2012, claiming that millions of marketing calls were placed to consumers to promote the cruise lines. According to the telemarketing robocalls lawsuit, those calls were made with an auto-dialer that placed the calls from nine in the morning until nine at night five days per week.

The lawsuit was filed under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which sets forth the rules for how companies can contact consumers and what rights consumers have if companies violate these laws.

Class Members in this lawsuit will be able to recover a claim for as many as three robocalls with each one potentially valued at up to $300. The actual amount of each Class Member’s payment depends on how many total claims are filed.

In this case, the lead plaintiff was involved throughout the seven-year period during which the case was pending and provided documentation in addition to testimony during a deposition.

Robocalls refer to phone calls placed using an autodialer with a pre-recorded voice. According to the claimants in this lawsuit, multiple robocalls were received by many of the affected consumers. When there’s no live person on the line, users typically cannot even request to be taken off of the list for future contact.

According to the FCC, spoofed and illegal robocalls make up the biggest portion of consumer complaints received by the agency. Sometimes the robocalls named in FCC complaints involve recorded messages telling the listener to hit a button to stop receiving the calls. In some of these cases, that only lets the spammers know that a live person has answered the call, making that person a future target for more robocalls.

Even with the federal Do Not Call List, plenty of people end up receiving unwanted spam texts or phone calls using an autodialer in violation of the TCPA. While filing a government complaint alerts the FCC to possible scammers, filing a lawsuit against the responsible party might be the only way for that affected consumer to receive compensation for the disruptive and illegal calls.

If you’ve received prerecorded phone calls repeatedly from a business, make note of the times these calls came in and consider speaking with an experienced consumer protection lawyer.

Join a Free TCPA Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

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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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.