Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, CONSUMER PROTECTION—C.D. Ill.: Use of residential phone number as home business number did not preclude TCPA claims, (Jun 17, 2016)

By Jody Coultas, J.D.

The federal district court in Springfield, Illinois, declined to dismiss Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) claim filed by a home business owner against Certified Payment Processing, L.P. (CPP) as it was unclear whether the number called was for the telephone subscriber’s business or residence (Baker v. Certified Payment Processing, L.P., June 16, 2016, Myerscough, S.).

CPP, a payment processing services company, made unauthorized calls without prior express written consent in violation of the TCPA. The calls in question were allegedly made to telephone numbers registered with the National Do Not Call Registry. CPP made over 100 sales calls to the class representative alone, according to the complaint for damages and injunctive relief.

In its motion to dismiss, CPP argued that the Plaintiff failed to state a claim because his telephone number was not a residential number, but rather a non-wireless business number. Screenshots of various websites listing Plaintiff’s telephone number as the number for his business were submitted in support of the argument.

The court declined to grant CPP’s motion to dismiss on the basis that the phone number called was not residential. Plaintiff indicated that the number is a residential number, and used as the number for his home-based carpet cleaning business. The FCC has declined to exempt home-based businesses from the Do-Not-Call rules, preferring to review such calls to determine whether the call was made to a residential subscriber. Construing all reasonable inferences in favor of Plaintiff, Plaintiff stated a TCPA claim by alleging that CPP made calls to his residential number registered on the National Do Not Call Registry.

The case is No. 16-cv-03002.

Attorneys: Kyle Alan Shamberg (Lite DePalma Greenberg, LLC) for John Baker. Jon G. Shepherd (Holland & Knight LLP) for Certified Payment Processing, L.P.

Companies: Certified Payment Processing, L.P.

Cases: ConsumerProtection IllinoisNews