Class Action Seeks to Hold DirecTV ‘Directly Liable’ for Its Debt Collector’s Calls

Robocalls are the top consumer complaint in the U.S., and the "conduct" of DirecTV and its debt collector, Credence Resource Management, “is a good reason why,” alleged plaintiff Joseph Brennan’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action Saturday (docket 2:24-cv-03019) in U.S. District Court for Central California in Los Angeles. A 2008 FCC order held that a company on whose behalf a phone call is made bears the responsibility for any TCPA violations, said the complaint. Credence collects debts for DirecTV and routinely violates the TCPA by using an artificial or prerecorded voice to place nonemergency calls to cellphone numbers without prior express consent, it said. The 2008 order establishes that DirecTV is “directly liable” for the calls that Credence made on its behalf, it said. DirecTV could have restricted Credence from using prerecorded messages to make the calls, but it didn’t, said the complaint. DirecTV knew that Credence was calling using prerecorded messages, it said. Brennan’s counsel even sent DirecTV a letter protesting its collection calling practices, but Credence continued calling the plaintiff using a prerecorded message even after receiving the letter, it said. Brennan estimates receiving at least five prerecorded calls from Credence, on DirecTV’s behalf, between Feb. 6 and March 1, said the complaint. Upon information and “good faith belief,” the plaintiff said the calls and prerecorded voice messages to his cellphone were intended for a person named Whitley, to collect a $509 DirecTV debt. Brennan doesn’t know anyone named Whitley, and he has never had, a DirecTV account, it said. The plaintiff incurred actual harm as a result of the calls, “in that he suffered an invasion of privacy, an intrusion into his life, and a private nuisance,” it said.