iQor, Allied Interstate Settle with CA District Attorneys for $9M in Call Volume Case

Allied Interstate LLC and its parent company, iQor Holdings, Inc., reached a settlement with several California county district attorneys’ offices over call volumes and other debt collection practices. A stipulated judgment in the litigation was entered on October 30, 2018.

[article_ad]

According to a press release issued by the Santa Clara District Attorney’s office, Allied Interstate and iQor allegedly violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the California Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by “calling consumers with excessive frequency, sometimes hundreds of times and sometimes calling the wrong person numerous times; failing to cease calling even when advised that they had reached the wrong number; and using a robo-dialer, known as a ‘predictive dialer,’ to place calls to the cell phones of consumers without having adequate proof that the consumer had consented to be called on their cell phone.”

The legal action commenced on September 14, 2016, when the district attorneys’ offices of Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego and Santa Clara counties filed suit. Throughout the life of the case, fourteen other county district attorneys’ offices in California joined as plaintiffs.

insideARM Perspective

Information about the substance of this case has thus far been limited to the district attorneys’ press releases. The Los Angeles County Court online case docket shows the actions taken in the litigation; unfortunately, a copy of the stipulated judgment is unavailable. However, insideARM obtained the following comment from iQor telling its side of the story:

To avoid the time and expense of further litigation, Allied Interstate LLC has reached a settlement with district attorneys representing the People of the State of California to conclude a 2016 lawsuit. The settlement involves no admission of liability or finding of wrongdoing. The case focused primarily on calls that Allied placed to certain California consumers dating back to 2011-2013. Allied maintains that such calls were lawful, including under California’s Rosenthal Act. Contrary to public announcements from the District Attorneys, the company does not engage in the practices addressed in the settlement and has long had robust compliance policies and best-in-class training to prevent them. Under its current leadership team, Allied has enjoyed an A(+/-) rating from the Better Business Bureau for the last three years and will continue to update its policies in response to the evolving law governing its industry.