/>iLead buyers are faced with twin TCPA risks every time they buy a third-party lead.
On the one hand, there are bad actors in the lead generation space that sell fake or abusively obtained leads.
On the other hand there are troll litigants who make their living filling out forms and suing for resulting phone calls under the TCPA.
Terrible stuff, both ways.
The problem is that when a TCPA suit commences the lead buyer often doesn’t know what happened– is the plaintiff a liar? Or is their lead vendor a scumbag? Unfortunately the lead buyer is stuck in the TCPA suit until they can prove the plaintiff is the bad guy–and if the lead supplier turns out to be the problem the best the buyer can do is pus indemnity rights; they’re still liable to the called party (and perhaps a class) for the misdirected calls.
Its a rough lead gen world out there but in Estrada v. Aragon, 2024 WL 5059166 (S.D. Tex. Dec. 10, 2024) it got a little better for lead buyers everywhere.
In Estrada the plaintiff sued Aragon claiming it received calls without consent. The lead resulting in the calls had been purchased from Python Leads who was also subsequently named in the suit.
The defendants, however, counterclaimed against Plaintiff for fraud–arguing that he filled out a form online to set up the suit.
The plaintiff moved to dismiss the claim arguing the Court lacked jurisdiction over the claim and that the claim otherwise failed.
The court refused to dismiss the claim finding that it was related to the TCPA suit–so supplemental jurisdiction was appropriate– and that the loss of expending call center resources as a result of a fake lead was a sufficient injury to be actionable under fraud.
The Court also rejected the application of a state law provision in Texas designed to prevent abusive litigation.
In the end Estrada is another data point suggesting lead buyers can sue for fraud anytime a plaintiff claims they did not fill out a lead form. This really raises the stakes for TCPA plaintiffs and puts them in the position of facing real risk in pursuing cases.
Then again, if the Plaintiff is innocent–i.e. they did not fill out the online form– they will ultimately prevail and the Court (and jury) may punish the defendant for bringing what amounts to a false claim. So be careful out there!
Details will follow soon!
