Vehicle Warranty Firm, Vendor Routinely Violate TCPA, Alleges Class Action

Cornerstone Auto Protection promotes sales of its vehicle warranty plans by relying on third-party telemarketing vendors like Call Handles to generate leads, alleged Mark Ortega’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action Monday (docket 5:24-cv-00573) in U.S. District Court for Western Texas in San Antonio. Cornerstone and Call Handles routinely violate the TCPA by making telemarketing calls to consumers without their consent, including calls to phone numbers listed on the national do not call registry, alleged the Texas resident’s complaint. Texas law, under Section 302.101 of the Texas Business & Commerce Code, also prohibits sellers from engaging in phone solicitations from a location in Texas or to a purchaser located in Texas unless the seller obtains a registration certificate from the Texas secretary of state, which the defendants didn’t do, it said. Cornerstone hired Call Handles to originate new business using telemarketing calls, said the complaint. The defendant accepted the benefits of Call Handles’ illegal telemarketing “by taking live transfers of leads directly from Call Handles,” it said. Cornerstone “failed to take effective steps within its power” to force Call Handles to cease calling consumers whose numbers were listed on the DNC registry, it said.