Energy Company Sued Under TCPA for ‘Obnoxious’ Calls to Restricted Number

A Pennsylvania man who says he got 11 telemarketing calls in 19 days from the same energy company — despite being on the National Do Not Call Registry — has retaliated by filing a class action lawsuit.

Plaintiff Andrew Perrong filed the proposed class action against solar firm Orbit Energy & Power in the Eastern District Of Pennsylvania Friday. He alleges Orbit violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) by calling phone numbers listed on the National Do Not Call Registry.

Perrong said in the lawsuit he’s been on the registry since 2018. However, on 11 days from Jan. 21 to Feb. 9 this year, he got telemarketing calls from Orbit to his home phone, sometimes twice per day.

Frustrated, he ended up going through the telemarketing process in order to identify the company to report it. After getting an email identifying the New Jersey-based renewable energy company, he identified a class of potentially thousands of people who may have also been subject to the calls, despite being on the registry.

“[Perrong and the other call recipients] were temporarily deprived of legitimate use of their phones because their phone lines were tied up during the telemarketing calls and their privacy was improperly invaded,” the lawsuit alleges.

“Moreover, these calls injured [Perrong] and the other call recipients because they were frustrating, obnoxious, annoying, were a nuisance and disturbed the solitude of plaintiff and the class.”

The National Do Not Call Registry is managed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency, and was created to stop unwanted sales calls. 

Consumers can I register their home or mobile phone numbers for free, and companies that illegally call numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry or place an illegal robocall can currently be fined up to $42,530 per call, the FTC says. Political calls, charitable calls, debt collection calls, purely informational calls and surveys are still allowed under the registry.

Perrong is asking the court to certify the proposed Class. He’s looking to represent all American citizens on the National Do No Call Registry for at least 31 days who got more than one call from Orbit within a 12 month period in the last four years.

The class action lawsuit is seeking an order preventing Orbit from making autodialed calls, an injunction preventing it from calling numbers on the Do Not Call Registry and damages.

Meanwhile, the TCPA is poised to get a lot of attention in 2021 because of another year of Supreme Court activity ruling on the law. 

Stay in the loop with TCA, and let us know if you’ve been receiving marketing calls, despite being on the Do Not Call List, in the comments.

Perrong is represented by Anthony I. Paronich of Paronich Law, P.C. and G. Clinton Kelley.

The Orbit Energy TCPA Class Action Lawsuit is Andrew Perrong vs. Orbit Energy & Power, LLC, Case No. 2:21-cv-00777, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District Of Pennsylvania.

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