N.M. Plaintiff Sues to Halt Solar Power Firms’ ‘Unlawful Telemarketing Conspiracy’

SunPower, a nationwide marketer of solar power systems, contracted with Photon Rainbow, a local installer, to run an “unlawful telemarketing conspiracy,” in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and Section 22 of the New Mexico Unfair Practices Act (UPA), alleged plaintiff Laurence Barker’s Feb. 3 complaint in 2nd Judicial District Court in Bernalillo County, New Mexico. The case was removed Wednesday to U.S. District Court for New Mexico in Albuquerque. The UPA, like the TCPA, “is intended to protect consumer privacy by prohibiting certain telemarketing calls,” and to provide for transparency “by requiring that telemarketers identify themselves and who they are calling for during the calls,” said Barker’s complaint. SunPower approves and controls contracts and agreements for telemarketing, “and authorizes and controls payments to the persons who make the actual telephone solicitations,” including the defendant Jane Doe agents who also are co-conspirators, it said. The Jane Does “refuse in their marketing calls to identify themselves or where they are located as required by law for telemarketing,” it said. Barker asks the court's help to discover the Jane Does' “true identity and whereabouts” so that a summons can be served on them, it said. SunPower “controls, prepares and approves standardized telemarketing messages and sales pitches directed at consumers,” including those that Barker received without his consent, it said. SunPower and Photon use robocalling “because it allows for thousands of automated sales calls to be initiated in a very short period of time,” said the complaint. Their sales representatives “only need actually spend time on the phone with consumers” who respond affirmatively to the sales pitches, it said. The defendants thereby “illegally shift the cost of aggravation and wasted time to the public at large and away from themselves where it belongs,” it said. SunPower and Photon “reserve all rights to assert any defense” against Barker’s allegations, including motions to dismiss under Rule 12, said their notice of removal.