State Farm Can’t Avoid TCPA Liability by Outsourcing: Class Action

State Farm, via third parties acting on its behalf, made telemarketing calls to the cellphone number of Thomas Gebka, a Hendersonville, Tennessee, resident “without express consent,” in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, alleged Gebka’s class-action complaint Monday (docket 1:22-cv-05546) in U.S. District Court in Chicago. “Because telemarketing campaigns generally place calls to hundreds of thousands or even millions of potential customers en masse,” Gebka brought the action “on behalf of proposed nationwide classes of other persons who received illegal telemarketing calls from or on behalf of” State Farm, it said. “The FCC has held that a company on whose behalf a telephone call is made bears the responsibility for any violations,” said the complaint. The commission has confirmed that sellers such as State Farm “may not avoid liability by outsourcing telemarketing,” it said. “State Farm agencies appoint third-party telemarketing vendors as subagents to solicit people to purchase State Farm insurance.” State Farm didn't comment Tuesday.