Santa Clara, CA: A Place for Mom Inc, is facing a Telephone Consumer protection Act (TCPA) class action lawsuit alleging it bombards customers with automated phone calls in an effort to increase business.
The seniors’ housing referral service works with consumers to provide information about assisted living facilities nearby, refers the leads generated to those facilities and then receives a commission if and when seniors ultimately enroll, the lawsuit states.
According to the complaint, the defendant uses contact information that customers enter on the Contact Information page of their website to make repeated automated telemarketing calls to those consumers. Andrew Kim, who filed the lawsuit, claims the only warning that this will happen is a very small caption on the site that states those customers will be called immediately after they enter their information.
The lawsuit claims that A Place for Mom has violated the TCPA because the small-lettered consent message on the bottom of its website doesn’t constitute the “reasonable notice” required for the use of autodialers. The TCPA expressly forbids the use of autodial systems unless prior notice is provided and consent is given, or in emergency situations.
Further, the complaint specifies that “The search page is designed in such a manner so that the consumer provides his or her phone number… without ever receiving notice that the consumer is agreeing to be contacted via prerecorded or autodialed calls,” the lawsuit states. “Defendant’s autodialer authorization thus fails to meet the thresholds” mandated by the TCPA.
Kim alleges he used the service for the first time in July and quickly “received an autodialed telemarketing call” that “was annoying and harassing … and an invasion of his privacy.”
Kim seeks to represent a class consisting of residents in the US who provided their number to the service and received an autodialed call.
Kim is represented by Gary M. Klinger and Ryan F. Sullivan of Kozonis Law Ltd., and Jonathan D. Selbsin and Daniel M. Hutchinson of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP.
The case is Andrew Kim v. A Place For Mom Inc., case number 1:17-cv-05716, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
