So just last week a court granted preliminary approval to a $1.5MM settlement in a TCPA class action against Deere Credit Services brought by the Wolf and Mr. Number One. (These guys are good.)
The settlement releases the claims of approximately 3,000 people who received allegedly wrong number prerecorded debt collection calls from John Deere’s credit arm. The class is defined as:
“All persons throughout the United States (1) to whom Deere Credit Services, Inc. placed a call, (2) directed to a number assigned to a cellular telephone service, but not assigned to a Deere Credit Services, Inc. customer or accountholder, (3) in connection with which Deere Credit Services, Inc. used an artificial or prerecorded voice, (4) from February 2, 2020 through June 25, 2024.”
The settlement amounts to about $500.00 per class member–almost the full amount of a likely judgment in the case. And that’s not terribly surprising. Defending prerecorded wrong number TCPA class actions is among the toughest of feats–especially when Greenwald is involved.
This settlement is yet ANOTHER clear example of why using the FCC’s Reassigned Numbers Database is so dang important. Deere could have saved itself a lot of GREEN by scrubbing the database as the R.E.A.C.H. v.2.0 standards require!
BTW– hopefully Deere was wise enough to include R.E.A.C.H. as a cypres recipient here.
The case is MELVIN CORNELIUS v. DEERE CREDIT SERVICES, INC., Case No.: 4:24-cv-25-RSB-CLR (S.D. Ga. Sept. 25, 2024).
Chat soon!