in Newswire October 31, 2019

Class Action Claims Re/Max Agents Placed Illegal Cold Calls to Sellers of Expired Property Listings

Last Updated on October 31, 2019

DeClements et al. v. Re/Max LLC

Filed: October 23, 2019 ◆§ 2:19-cv-05476-NVW

Re/Max faces a class action that claims it encouraged and trained agents to cold call sellers of expired property listings without the recipients’ consent.

Defendant(s)

Re/Max LLC

Law(s)

Telephone Consumer Protection Act

State(s)

Arizona

A proposed class action lawsuit filed in Arizona claims that Re/Max LLC and its agents have routinely used lead generation services to place illegal telemarketing calls to potential clients. More specifically, the case alleges Re/Max trained agents to use a lead generation service known as Landvoice, among several others, to mine expired, canceled or otherwise withdrawn property listings from the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and attempt to persuade the owners to relist their properties with the defendant.

The suit explains that Landvoice uses a sequential number generator to load leads into a “Power Dialer” capable of calling up to 300 numbers per hour and leaving a prerecorded message if a call is not answered. This technology, the case contends, is considered an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS), the use of which is forbidden by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) without the called party’s prior express written consent and for non-emergency purposes. The lawsuit claims Re/Max’s agents failed to obtain property listing owners’ prior express consent before calling and frequently placed calls to numbers on the National Do-Not-Call (DNC) Registry, both of which are illegal under the TCPA.

Both plaintiffs claim that they received multiple unsolicited calls and prerecorded messages from Re/Max agents very shortly after taking property listings off the MLS. One of the plaintiffs says he received 12 telemarketing calls from three different Re/Max agents over a three-day span despite the inclusion of his two phone numbers’ in the DNC. Neither plaintiff consented to receive autodialed calls or robocalls from Re/Max, according to the complaint.

The case contends that Re/Max has encouraged the above-described behavior by training its agents to place unauthorized cold calls using Landvoice and other “approved suppliers” despite knowing such calls violated the TCPA.

The suit seeks $500 for every negligent violation and $1,500 for every knowing and willful violation of the TCPA committed against proposed class members.