Gerber Life accused of benefiting from pesty telemarketing

When Thomas Matthews answered his home telephone in August 2022, a telltale pause and click alerted him to the likelihood that the call had been placed by a telemarketer using autodial technology.

Now Matthews is going after the purported beneficiary of that call, Gerber Life Insurance Co. of White Plains, for allegedly violating the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

Matthews, of Roanoke, Virginia, filed a class action lawsuit on Jan. 23 in U.S. District Court, White Plains, on behalf of potentially thousands of consumers who may have received “annoying and intrusive” calls for Gerber Life’s benefit.

Telemarketing campaigns can reach thousands of individuals a day, according to the complaint. Matthews is demanding up to $1,500 per call for individuals on the federal Do Not Call Registry.

He says he registered in 2021. A year later, on Aug, 29, 2022, he received the “pause and click” call from an eastern Virginia area code. The caller identified himself as Ray from Legacy Quotes calling on behalf of Gerber Life Insurance, the complaint states.

Matthews said he was not interested and he hung up.

Four days later, he received another call from the same number and he rejected it.

On Sept. 15 he received a pause and click call from a Pontiac, Michigan area code. The caller said he was with Legacy Quotes, according to the complaint. Matthews was transferred to an 800-area code number associated with Gerber Life and he spoke with a woman who said she worked for Gerber.

Matthews claims that the proximity and similarity of the three calls, including the pause and click sounds, indicate en masse telemarketing that might violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

The TCPA was enacted in 1991 in response to public outrage over the proliferation of intrusive, unsolicited telemarketing, the complaint states. The Federal Communications Commission established the Do Not Call Registry that prohibits solicitations to those telephone numbers.

The rules also apply to companies on whose behalf the telemarketers act. In this case, Matthews alleges, Gerber Life became liable for the actions taken by Legacy Quotes when the telemarketer transferred calls to the insurance company.

The media relations department for Gerber Life’s parent company, Western & Southern Finance Group, did not reply to an email asking for Gerber’s side of the story.

The complaint is seeking an award of damages for individuals whose telephones  have been listed on the Do Not Call Registry for at least 31 days and who have received more than one telemarketing call on behalf of Gerber Life within 12 months during any period in the past four years.

The class action complaint was filed by attorneys Edward A. Broderick, Boston; Anthony I. Paronich, Hingham, Massachusetts; and Andrew W. Heidarpour, Washington, D.C.