Kroger Class Action Says Unwanted Phone Calls Violate Federal Law

A new Kroger class action lawsuit accuses the supermarket giant of violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act through the use of an artificial or pre-rerecorded voice and an automated telephone dialing system.

Lead plaintiff Derrick Brooks alleges that he was contacted by Kroger and when he answered the phone, he heard a pause indicating the use of a predictive dialing system.

As explained in the Kroger class action lawsuit, predictive dialers are also known as automated telephone dialing system.

These programs store and dial telephone numbers from a list without a human entering them and also generate sequential or random numbers in the dialing process.

The plaintiff states that following the pause on the call, a recording stated, “Hello, this call is from your Kroger family of stores.”

The Kroger phone call class action lawsuit alleges that in violation of the TCPA, Kroger has made and continues to make these calls and interrupts the privacy of the recipient.

The Kroger class action lawsuit argues that the company knew or should have known that these kinds of calls directly violate the TCPA.

A company must have obtained prior written consent from the recipient before making calls like this; if this consent is not received, a recipient can take legal action.

When a phone number contacts a person in violation of the TCPA or when the call is unexpected, the consumer might turn to the internet to verify the source of the call by typing the incoming phone number into a search engine.

According to the Kroger class action lawsuit, an online search reveals that many other people have been targeted by Kroger, as other consumers have listed their complaints against the company after their own experience. Some of those complaints allege that the person who got the call doesn’t even live near a Kroger store.

Consumer complaints about telemarketing practices used by businesses led to the passage of the TCPA in 1991. In particular, the law references automated or robotic practices that make the calls annoying or limit the recipient from being able to ask a human for the calls to stop.

The Kroger class action lawsuit seeks to represent a Class of consumers similarly affected by the telephone calls.

The Kroger TCPA class action lawsuit states that anyone in the U.S. who received a call on their cellular telephone from Kroger anytime up to four years before the filing of the complaint meets the definition of proposed Class Member.

The use of an autodialer sometimes means that a recipient receives dozens or hundreds of calls on their phone. Some predictive dialers even switch up what the incoming number looks like, making it hard for the recipient to block or ignore the calls.

The proposed Class in the Kroger class action lawsuit is represented by L. Timothy Fisher and Scott A. Bursor of Bursor & Fisher PA.

The Kroger Unwanted Phone Calls Class Action Lawsuit is Derrick Brooks v. The Kroger Co., Case No. 3:19-cv-00106, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

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.

GET A FREE CASE EVALUATION NOW