Keller Williams is in the crosshairs of yet another class action lawsuit, except instead of dealing with agent compensation or alleged breaches of contract, this latest suit involves unwanted telemarketing communications.
In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday in U.S. District Court of the Western District of Texas, San Antonio resident Mark Ortega alleges that he received unwanted telemarketing messages on his cell phone in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
The TCPA prevents parties from “making telemarketing calls to consumers without consent including calls to phone numbers that are registered on the National Do Not Call registry (“DNC”).”
The plaintiff claims his phone number is part of the DNC registry and that he never consented to receive telemarketing communications from Keller Williams.
In early March, Ortega claims that he received “unsolicited telemarketing messages to his cell phone number from Julia Jordan, a real estate agent with Keller Williams Realty, The Woodlands & Magnolia—a franchise of Defendant. The purpose of the messages was to advertise the listing of a house to Plaintiff.”
The message contained a photo of Jordan with the Keller Williams logo, as well as a photo of the house. The text included with the photos invited Ortega to a “Mimosa and Ice Cream Truck Open House” and provided him with Jordan’s contact in formation.
According to the complaint, Ortega messaged Jordan to “stop” sending messages. The following day, Ortega’s attorney sent a letter to the defendant noting that the plaintiff is registered on the DNC registry and that he “did not consent to receiving communications from Defendant, and demanding damages.”
In an emailed response on March,20, 2024, the complaint states that the defendant denied the demand. Due to this, Ortega made the decision to file a lawsuit.
The suit is seeking class action status for two separate classes. The first is the National Do No Call Registry Class, which the plaintiff proposes should be made up of “all persons in the United States (1) whose telephone numbers were on the National Do Not Call Registry for at least 31 days, (2) who received more than one telemarketing call from or on behalf of Defendant, (3) within a 12-month period, (4) at any time in the period that begins four years before the date of filing this Complaint through the date of trial.”
The second class is specific to the Texas No-Call list and would be comprised of “all persons in the United States (1) who received a telephonic sales call regarding Defendant’s goods and/or services (2) to a number listed on the Texas No-Call list (3) at any time in the period that begins two years before the date of filing this Complaint through the date of trial.”
Ortega has demanded a jury trial and is seeking injunctive and monetary relief.
Keller Williams is no stranger to TCPA suits, with countless suits having been filed over the years. The most recent TCPA complaint lodged against the firm was filed in mid-October 2023 by Jeff Issacs in Southern Florida. Additionally, at the end of 2022, Keller Williams agreed to a $40 million national TCPA settlement that resolved multiple class action lawsuits, which sought hundreds of millions of dollars in statutory damages for alleged TCPA violations dating back to May 2014 and involved millions of calls and texts made by independent agents throughout the KW franchise system.
“We are aware of the filing and are investigating the allegations. However, the face of the complaint indicates that the alleged messages were sent by a real estate agent affiliated with one of our franchisees, and not by Keller Williams Realty, Inc.,” Darryl Frost, a spokesperson for Keller Williams, wrote in an email. “As a matter of policy, we require our franchisees and their agents to comply with all laws, including the TCPA and Do Not Call rules and applicable state telemarketing laws.”
