Judge Partly Grants Motion to Dismiss TCPA Claims vs. Synchrony Bank

Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg for the District of Columbia granted in part and denied in part defendant Synchrony Bank’s motion to dismiss pro se plaintiff Na’eem Betz’s second amended Telephone Consumer Protection Act complaint, said Boasberg’s signed order Monday (docket 1:22-cv-02235).

Betz alleged Synchrony called him 83 times to collect a debt using an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) and a prerecorded or artificial voice (PRAV), in violation of the TCPA. He also asserted an invasion of privacy claim against the bank. More than a third of the calls came after Synchrony “coded” Betz’s account to prevent future calls, after Betz filed two complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in April and May 2021.

Boasberg ruled Betz didn’t sufficiently plead that Synchrony used an ATDS in calling him, said his order. But the judge let Betz proceed on his PRAV claim because there’s “little dispute” the bank used a PRAV to call him, and because the court can’t “infer” that Betz previously agreed to receive the calls, it said.

When Betz didn’t answer Synchrony’s calls, he received a voicemail that identified the caller as Synchrony, requested that he return its call and provided contact information, said the judge’s order. Each voicemail ended with a statement saying, “This is a recording,” it said.

The judge dismissed Betz’s invasion of privacy claim against Synchrony, said his order. D.C. courts have said calls constitute an invasion of privacy only when the calls are repeated with such persistence and frequency that they amount to a course of “hounding” the calls’ recipient, said the order. “Betz may not like these phone calls, but they do not amount to an invasion of privacy,” said the judge. The calls “included no threats or personal attacks,” and at no point does Betz allege Synchrony called him to the point of hounding, he said.

Betz’s TCPA lawsuit is far from his “first rodeo,” said the judge. A "frequent pro se filer," Betz brought the action against Synchrony in July, and he has since amended it twice and withdrawn a third proposed amendment, it said.