Allstate Knowingly Accepts Benefits of Illegal Telemarketing Calls, Alleges Complaint

Allstate engages in widespread unsolicited telemarketing to promote the sale of its insurance products, and violates the Telephone Consumer Protection Act as it does so, alleged plaintiff Thomas Doughty’s complaint Thursday (docket 1:24-cv-00356) in U.S. District Court for Western Texas in Austin. Allstate engages insurance agents across the country to conduct that telemarketing on its behalf, “and authorizes those insurance agents to place telemarketing calls on Allstate’s behalf and subject to Allstate’s control,” said the complaint. Those include prerecorded telemarketing calls and calls to numbers listed on the national do not call list, it said. When an Allstate insurance agent sells an Allstate insurance policy as a result of illegal telemarketing calls and a premium is collected on that policy, both Allstate and the agent receive portions of that premium, it said. Allstate “knowingly accepted the benefits of the illegal telemarketing calls, both in the form of advertising benefits that Allstate obtained during the calls themselves and in collection of premium payments resulting from any sales made from those calls,” it said. “This is not the first lawsuit against Allstate alleging TCPA violations” that arise from calls placed by Allstate’ agents, said the complaint. “Accordingly, Allstate has been on notice since at least 2019" that its agents are violating the TCPA on Allstate’s behalf, yet Allstate “has allowed the violations to continue,” it said. Court records show that 30 TCPA complaints have been filed against Allstate since October 2015.