US Dealer Services Hit with Class Action Over Alleged Extended Car Warranty Robocalls [UPDATE]
by Erin Shaak
Last Updated on August 4, 2022
Rowan v. US Dealer Services, Inc.
Filed: April 21, 2021 ◆§ 2:21-cv-09945
A proposed class action claims US Dealer Services has unlawfully placed robocalls to consumers as a means to advertise its extended car warranties.
Case Update
August 4, 2022 – TCPA Lawsuit Decided in Favor of US Dealer Services
The judge overseeing the case detailed on this page granted US Dealer Services’ motion for summary judgment on July 18, 2022, finding that the defendant’s calls to the plaintiff did not violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
In an opinion filed the same day, U.S. District Judge Kevin McNulty noted that the plaintiff had been a former customer of US Dealer Services. Because the two parties had an established business relationship, US Dealer Services was permitted to call the plaintiff for up to 18 months after he canceled his policy, unless he submitted a do-not-call request, the judge explained. According to the opinion, the plaintiff only asked US Dealer Services to stop calling him after receiving the calls at issue, and the defendant has not called him since.
“The Court therefore finds that, under a correct view of the law and on this undisputed factual record, no reasonable jury could find that USDS violated 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(c),” Judge McNulty wrote.
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A proposed class action claims US Dealer Services has unlawfully placed robocalls to consumers as a means to advertise its extended car warranties.
According to the 12-page lawsuit out of New Jersey, the defendant has overstepped the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) by robocalling consumers who never expressly consented to be contacted and whose phone numbers were listed on the National Do Not Call Registry. The TCPA prohibits the use of automatic telephone dialing equipment to place telemarketing calls without first securing the recipients’ written consent and bars entities from calling phone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry without proper authorization, the lawsuit says.
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Per the suit, US Dealer Services’ Better Business Bureau page is “filled with complaints” from consumers who’ve received unsolicited calls from the company concerning its extended car warranties. Consumers have reported that the calls continued even after they asked to be removed from the defendant’s calling list, the suit relays, and several individuals have said they were hung up on when they pressed for more information about the company’s identity.
The plaintiff, an East Rochester, New York resident, says he received several unsolicited calls from US Dealer Services from “spoofed number[s].” Upon answering a January 2021 call, the plaintiff heard “dead air” until the call automatically disconnected, the case attests. After not answering several more of the defendant’s calls, the plaintiff answered a call on January 21 and heard “a loud ‘bloop’ sound” before a representative came on the line, according to the suit.
The plaintiff states in the lawsuit that he “played along” and purchased an extended warranty from the representative in order to determine the defendant’s identity. Per the case, an email sent to the plaintiff shortly after he purchased the warranty, as well as the warranty paperwork he received in the mail, identified US Dealer Services as the entity who sold the plan. Moreover, US Dealer Services was listed as the payee on the plaintiff’s bank account for the transaction, according to the suit.
The plaintiff says he never consented to receive telemarketing calls from the defendant, and that his phone number has been listed on the National Do Not Call Registry since 2005. According to the case, the defendant has harmed the plaintiff “in the form of annoyance, nuisance, and invasion of privacy, and disturbed the use and enjoyment of his phone, in addition to the wear and tear on the phone.”
The lawsuit looks to represent the following class:
“All persons in the United States who from four years prior to the filing of this action through class certification (1) Defendant (or an agent acting on behalf of Defendant) called more than one time, (2) within any 12-month period, (3) where the person’s telephone number had been listed on the National Do Not Call Registry for at least thirty days, (4) for the same purpose Defendant called Plaintiff.”
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