Horizon Solar Agrees to $800,000 Robocall Settlement
On August 31, 2020, attorneys representing Jeremiah Davila-Lynch submitted a motion for preliminary approval to Judge Saylor seeking an $800,000 robocall settlement on a class of people that received unwanted robocalls from Horizon Solar in 2017.
It is not yet determined what the expected amount per class member will be. If the settlement is approved by Judge Saylor, notice forms will go out to class members who will have the opportunity to submit a claim and be included in the payout.
This case stems from a complaint filed by Davila-Lynch on Jan 15, 2018 alleging that he received multiple pre-recorded calls to his cell phone. He alleges that the calls were robocalls and soliciting him to save money on solar. The callers identified themselves as “Solar Spectrum” which the agent informed the Plaintiff is the same company as Horizon Solar. (Solar Spectrum and Horizon Solar merged in September 2017 prior to the onset of these calls.)
This case was filed in the District Court of Massachusetts and the Judge assigned to the case is Judge Dennis Saylor, IV. This case was litigated for over 2.5 years.
On March 21, 2019 the Plaintiff filed a motion for class certification. In the class certification motion, the Plaintiff details how their discovery bore out that Horizon Solar contracted with Flowmedia to send telemarketing calls to consumers. Flowmedia produced the records of the calls and none of the calls were made with the prior express written consent of the call recipients. Horizon Solar provided Flowemedia with scripts to use on the robocalls.
The Plaintiff also showed in his class certification motion that an employee of Flowmedia confirmed that Horizon Solar knew how Flowmedia generated customers for them. Flow media would purchase telephone numbers to call from a variety of third parties.
What is most interesting about this particular case is that Horizon Solar is settling a class action case based on the actions of its third party telemarketer. This third party telemarketer purchased lists and made calls on behalf of Horizon Solar. This type of case is a warning to other companies that they cannot outsource their telemarketing to others and absolve themselves of liability, simply because they are not the ones who made the calls. If a company hires a third party telemarketer and the company benefits financially from that third party’s actions, it is possible for the company to be held responsible.
In the end, this class action settlement is a win for the class members. It is not yet known how much each person in the class will receive if they make a claim but we will continue to monitor its progress and report back to you.
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