Second Circuit Court Dismisses FACTA Case Under Spokeo

Spokeo related success stories have been hard to come by in 2017. However, a recent second circuit court decision in Katz v. The Donna Karan Company, LLC, et al. provided defendants in a consumer protection class action lawsuit a creative way out. Plaintiff Katz filed the class action lawsuit against the Donna Karan Company for allegedly printing receipts that showed six digits of his credit card number. Katz claimed that this put his identity at risk. The defendants filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that the plaintiff lacked standing because he had merely alleged a small procedural violation of FACTA that did not raise a concrete risk of identity theft. Read the full court opinion here. Telemarketing businesses often face similar lawsuits. Risks can be mitigated by understanding telemarketing rules, DNC list compliance, robocall laws, and overall telemarketing compliance.

Court Finds Defendants Lied to Consumers When Selling Legal Services for Mortgage Relief

A Federal Court has found that business owners Jeremy Foti and Charles Marshall “made numerous false and/or misleading material statements to consumers” during the course of business under their mortgage relief companies Brookstone Law and Advantis Law. The FTC went after the two men earlier this year, alleging that they deceived consumers out of nearly $18 million. The court has imposed monetary damages and banned the two men from any debt relief activities in the future. Read more about this case here. The FTC and the FCC often go after telemarketers as well. Any telemarketing business owner should be sure they understand FCC telemarketing laws. Consider contacting a telemarketing attorney or a TCPA attorney if you want telemarketing compliance help.

Judge Awards Attorney Fees to Defendant in Case Involving Vexatious Litigator

In the case Forto v. Capital One Bank National Association, plaintiff Simonette Forto filed a lawsuit against Capital One for alleged violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Forto had failed to pay off a credit card debt in 2013. Capital One successfully hired a collections firm to negotiate a payment plan with Forto, but Forto provided false banking and routing information to the collections agent. When the collections firm tried calling her again to resolve the payment issue, she filed a lawsuit alleging unscrupulous debt collection practices. Both sides filed a motion to dismiss. The Judge granted the defendant's motion, finding, "defendants did nothing that even comes close to an unscrupulous debt collection practice.”  Click here to view a copy of the court's order. While the FDCP is different than the TCPA, learn what you can do to respond to a TCPA lawsuit. Be sure to contact a TCPA lawyer if you find yourself in a case against a vexatious TCPA litigator.

Judge Rules that $1.6 Billion Telemarketing Fine is Unreasonable

In Golan v. Veritas Entertainment, LLC, plaintiff Ron Golan and other class members alleged that film company Veritas Entertainment made 3.2 million illegal robocalls to consumers. The calls were made to promote the film Last Ounce of Courage, and featured a prerecorded voice message by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee in which he endorsed the movie. At the statutory minimum of $500 per violation under the TCPA, the class action judgment would have been over $1.6 billion. The judge held that a judgment so large was unreasonable and decreased the amount per call to just $10. Read more here. Contact a TCPA attorney if your company is in a situation like this and needs telemarketing compliance help. Learn more about robocalling regulations.

Facebook to Implement New Standards for Advertisers

In response to criticism from regulators in several different countries, Facebook will implement new guidelines to make it more difficult for advertisers to make money on fake and sensationalized news. Content creators will have to comply with Facebook's new community standards. This could have a significant impact on the online advertising industry, which is projected to grow to $205 billion during 2017. Click here to read more.
 

FTC Bans Online Marketers from Deceiving Customers

The FTC has fined business owners Brian Bernheim and Joshua Bernheim $2.5 million dollars and prohibited them from misrepresenting the cost of any goods or services online. The two men were originally targeted by the FTC in March of this year for allegedly "offering 'free' products, without clearly disclosing that by accepting the 'free' product consumers were agreeing to be charged each month for a subscription if they did not cancel." Read more about this FTC action here.

Louisiana Telemarketing Ban Lifted

The state of emergency that had been declared in Louisiana last week due to Hurricane Harvey has been lifted. Telemarketing calls can now be made into the state. Click here to see the official announcement. Calls will still need to be made following state and federal telemarketing compliance laws, of course. Be sure to understand cell phone telemarketing laws, cell phone DNC laws, autodialer laws, and other telemarketing rules.

FTC Obtains Court Order Against Utah Company

A Utah-based company has been targeted by the FTC for allegedly providing businesses in Arizona with services that allowed them to sell deceptive, low-value money making opportunities to consumers. The FTC is claiming that these companies sold millions of dollars worth of these services to consumers who wanted to try out the opportunities. Read more here.

FTC Obtains Court Order Against Sellers of English Learning Products

The FTC has obtained a court order against a company whose telemarketers in Peru allegedly used deceptive and abusive tactics to sell English learning products to Spanish-speaking consumers in the United States. Under the order, ABC Hispana Inc., ISB Latino Inc., ABC Latina LLC, Gonzalo Ricardo Bazán Jiménez and Milagros Raquel Urmeneta are banned from telemarketing. Read more here. To avoid trouble like this company is facing, make sure you follow all telemarketing regulations and other aspects of telemarketing compliance.

Seventh Circuit Denies Class Certification in TCPA Case

Last week, the Northern District of Illinois refused to grant the lawsuit Christopher Legg et al. v. PTZ Insurance Agency LTD, et al. class status, as the majority of the members in the potential class action lawsuit could not show concrete injury. In the case, plaintiffs Christopher Legg and Page Lozano sued pet adoption service Pethealth and their subsidiary PTZ Insurance Agency for allegedly making marketing calls without the proper consent. The court granted the defendant's motion to refuse class status, ruling that each individual plaintiff would have to have their own trial to prove that they suffered concrete injury before they could be named in a class action. The full court opinion is available here. If you are a telemarketer, make sure you understand what prior express written consent means. Also, make sure you understand how to reduce telemarketing risk.