Ramaswamy ‘Did Nothing’ to Stop Campaign Robocalls, Alleges Class Action
Vivek Ramaswamy, who suspended his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination Jan. 15, placed prerecorded calls to consumers’ cellphones to promote his telephonic town hall events without first obtaining their prior express consent, alleged plaintiff Thomas Grant’s Telephone Consumer Protection…
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Act class action Tuesday (docket 2:24-cv-00281) in U.S. District Court for Southern Ohio in Columbus. The TCPA “specifically prohibits” political campaign-related autodialed or prerecorded voice calls, including autodialed live calls, autodialed texts and prerecorded voice messages, without the recipients' prior express consent, said Grant’s complaint. Ramaswamy “either expressly authorized" the making of these prerecorded calls or knew that they were going to be made for his personal benefit, to promote his presidential candidacy, “and did nothing to stop them,” it said. Ramaswamy “controlled the timing” of the calls, right before his telephonic town hall events, it said. He also controlled the recipients of the calls, “by dictating that the messages be sent to voters registered as independents,” like Grant, who had no prior relationship with him, it said. Ramaswamy also controlled or had the right to control “the content of the messages,” said the complaint. He personally recorded many of the messages transmitted to consumers, it said. Many consumers “have voiced their complaints online about receiving these unsolicited prerecorded messages from Ramaswamy,” it said. Grant of Hudson, New Hampshire, seeks injunctive relief and statutory damages for the TCPA violations, it said. A separate TCPA class action in Phoenix alleges that Ramaswamy's presidential campaign committee, Vivek 2024, “embarked on an unsolicited campaign of harassment by text call" (see 2309190003), but Grant's complaint in Columbus is the first to name the candidate as the actual TCPA defendant.