TCPA Plaintiff Seeks Order to Compel Verizon to Produce Subscribers' Names

Plaintiff Aaron Williams is seeking an order to compel Verizon to produce the names of subscribers associated with phone numbers that are part of a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) class action against online pharmacy PillPack, said a Thursday motion to compel (docket 3:23-mc-00006) in U.S. District Court for New Jersey in Trenton.

Williams issued subpoenas under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 45(d) and (g) to identify subscribers associated with telephone numbers in western Washington where it certified a class of consumers claiming they received prerecorded voice calls in violation of the TCPA, said the motion. He issued the subpoenas after the court ordered that they be issued to wireless carriers in connection with providing class notice, said the motion. Williams seeks contact information for subscribers to provide class members with “direct notice of the action and an opportunity to exclude themselves from the class."

Verizon responded with a “series of objections” based on three state consumer privacy statutes, said the motion. The carrier agreed to produce subscriber information for consumers in states other than California, Delaware and Pennsylvania upon Williams’ payment of costs of pulling the data from its systems, the motion said. It will produce information for subscribers in California, Delaware and Pennsylvania if required to do so by a court order, the motion said. Verizon doesn’t oppose the relief sought by the motion, it said.

The court issued an order in March approving a class notice plan requiring Williams to send subpoenas to wireless carriers to identify subscribers to the phone numbers on the class list “to help avoid overbroad notice” and ensure members are properly identified and notified of their rights in the action, Williams said. Class counsel conferred with Verizon May 11 about its objections to providing some of the requested information without a court order, the motion said.

Williams referenced the California Public Utilities Code, saying phone companies are prohibited from making available demographic information about subscribers without their consent, but he noted that section 2894 provides an exception to the rule “where the disclosure is compelled by a court order,” citing Lee v. Global Tel Link. Delaware’s Code Title 11 Section 2423 and Section 5742 of Pennsylvania’s Title 18 statutes have similar provisions.