Soliciting Calls from Car Dealership Challenged in Federal Court

In a formal complaint filed on Dec. 20, 2019, the legality of soliciting calls made to plaintiff Jamal Johnson and potential class members numbering in the thousands from a car dealership in Riverside, Calif. has been challenged. The complainant was the recipient of telemarketing contact in alleged violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), according to the lawsuit.

The plaintiff accuses Moss Auto Group of making soliciting calls to him without prior written consent from February through October 2019. The complainant resides in the same area as the dealership. The soliciting calls consisted of prerecorded messages targeting his cellular phone number. The message content involved a request for Johnson to sell his current vehicle for “top dollars” to the dealer for the purposes of increasing their inventory. Selling his vehicle would put the plaintiff in the position of needing another mode of transportation himself.

As indicated by the lawsuit, the complainant is accusing the defendant of violating the TCPA trifold. First, by failing to seek Johnson’s written permission for this contact. Second, by using an automated telephone dialing system (ATDS) to reach him and other consumers. Third, by contacting him on his cellular phone. All of these elements are expressly outlined as prohibited in this law administered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

This TCPA lawsuit hopes to get an injunction that will stop these actions on the part of Moss Auto Group toward the plaintiff and thousands of other consumers that have been on the receiving end of them. Johnson, in this legal action, also hopes for the assessment of statutory damages pursuant to the law on his behalf and that of the class. Specifically, the complainant is seeking a minimum of $500 per violation for himself and every member of the participating class.

The Controversy Concerning Ringless Voicemails

Part of the issue at hand presented by the factual allegations section of the lawsuit is that ringless voice mails used for telemarketing and debt collection are theoretically a violating medium according to the TCPA. What are ringless voice mails? As indicated by Wikipedia, ringless voice mails are prerecorded voice messages delivered to cell phones en masse without engaging the ringing mechanism of the phone.

The FCC was petitioned to make ringless voice mails exempt from robocall or ATDS laws, but the ensuing arguments raised so much controversy that the petition was discontinued. In a Mar. 27, 2019 article posted by the National Law Review, it was noted that this controversy has been resolved with a decision in a lawsuit known as Schaevitz v. Braman Hyundai in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Two days prior to publishing the article on March 25, the court upheld the notion that ringless voicemails were subject to the control of the TCPA.

The court decided in relatively short order that ringless voice mails are on par with regular voicemail messages and that prerecorded messages are still under the jurisdiction of the TCPA. Part of this decision is that, regardless of whether the phone rings, the nuisance aspect of having to check these incoming messages makes them problematic.

Join a Free Car Dealership TCPA Violations Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

You may be eligible to join this lawsuit investigation into car dealership TCPA violations under the following circumstances:

• You did NOT provide express permission in writing to the car dealership to receive the calls or messages.
• You did NOT purchase a vehicle from the dealership that is contacting you.

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