Plaintiff Alleges COVID-19 Testing Firm Phoned His Number at Least 14 Times
Alpha Lab Services makes telemarketing calls to consumers soliciting sales of its COVID-19 testing kits, and in so doing, it calls numbers listed on the national do not call registry, alleged Nelson Estrada’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action Wednesday…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
(docket 1:24-cv-03531) in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago. Alpha also makes those calls to individuals who have previously requested not to be called and have asked to be added to Alpha’s internal DNC list, said the complaint. Estrada personally listed his phone number on the national DNC registry in March 2019, yet in March 2023, he began receiving numerous marketing calls made by or on behalf of Alpha soliciting him with COVID-19 testing kits, it said. The defendant’s calls all came from various phone numbers that used a 281 area code from the Houston area, said the complaint. Estrada believes Alpha used spoofing to make it appear that the caller was calling from the 281 area code, which was the plaintiff’s own area code, in an effort to make it more likely that he would answer the call, it said. The TCPA prohibits such spoofing conduct, it said. Estrada estimates that Alpha or its agents placed at least 14 telemarketing calls to his residential phone number despite his national DNC registry listing and despite his multiple requests that the calls stop, it said. He alleges that Alpha, and those calling on its behalf, didn’t have written DNC policies or procedures in place, said the complaint. Whatever written policies did exist “either failed to comply with the minimum requirements under the TCPA,” or were never properly implemented, it said. The plaintiff is entitled to damages of $1,500 per TCPA violation because Alpha’s actions were knowing and willful, it said.