Home Depot, Atlantic Water Settle TCPA Class Action Suit

Home Depot and Atlantic Water and Air will pay $4.35 million to settle a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) class action lawsuit stemming from robocalls made to customers without their permission, according to classaction.org.

By offering free water tests, Home Depot and Atlantic Water and Air collected customers’ phone numbers and then robocalled them to try to make a sale, according to the 2015 lawsuit.

To accomplish this, the suit alleged, “Home Depot gave Atlantic Water and Air exclusive access to their stores and their logo with the hope of obtaining consumers information.”

Customers who signed up for the free water tests reportedly didn’t realize that their phone numbers were being collected and placed in an auto-dialing system that would later besiege them with unwanted sales calls.

Class members include anyone who received a robocall from Home Depot and Atlantic Water and Air between October 2013 and June 2015.

TCPA Class Action Settlement Terms

Terms of the settlement state that by agreeing to the multi-million dollar settlement, the lawsuit against Home Depot and Atlantic Water and Air will be dropped.

The plaintiffs encouraged the court to approve the settlement, saying, “the expected recovery for the settlement class members of approximately $1,100 [per claimant] based on a ten percent claims rate well exceeds settlements” of other TCPA class actions.

The maximum amount a class member can receive is $5,000. The two lead plaintiffs are asking for $7,500 each as incentive awards for bringing the lawsuit.

In total, class members will receive about $2.6 million while nearly $1.75 million will go to attorney and court fees and other expenses affiliated with the case. The settlement calls for any money remaining after paying class members to be donated to charity.

Home Depot Previous TCPA Lawsuit

In 2016, Home Depot settled another TCPA lawsuit — for $5.2 million —  for calling customers who filled out home improvement forms despite the forms failing to include language indicating the customer was giving consent to receive calls.

The TCPA requires all forms (including those that state the customer wants someone from the company to follow up at a later date) to specify how the company will follow up. The law also mandates that the customer provides consent to be contacted by phone for that specific purpose.

A consent to call message on a form might say something like, “Please note that by providing your cell phone number, you may be contacted by text message, auto-assisted call, voice recording or live representative.”

Enacted by Congress in 1991, the TCPA has been revised over the years to address marketing tactics employed by telemarketers. In 2012, the Federal Communications Commission revised the law to require telemarketers “to obtain prior express written consent from consumers before robocalling them.”

The revision also established a ban on telemarketers using the excuse that they had an “established business relationship” with a customer, something telemarketers previously relied on to call the customer for any reason, without limitation.

The TCPA Class Action Lawsuit is Manopla et al. v. Home Depot USA Inc. et al., Case No. 3:15-cv-01120, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

UPDATE: September 2019, the Home Depot robocall class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.

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.