TCPAWORLD UNIVERSITY: Stuff That Will Get You Sued Edition

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So I came across this website today.

Here is the form:

Form promises “get free quote now.” And promises a consumer they can compare premiums between “All the Major Carriers.”

Now you already know before I push the button that you’re not going to get a “free quote” from “all the major” anything. But that’s small potatoes compared to the real issue with this website.

Notice the exceptionally elegant disclosures below the button. No TCPA consent disclosure right? (And yes, this is the entire form–I have not cropped out any of the content.) Consumer is just accepting a privacy policy and terms of service–neither of which can serve as a conspicuous written express consent disclosure under the CFR.

So you push the “Get Free Quote Now” button and guess what happens? You see this disclosure–that only pops up AFTER you provide your phone number and hit the button:

Its a great disclosure. Unfortunately it only displays after the consumer has already hit the “Get Free Quotes Now” button.

You don’t have to be a fortune teller to predict what a court will do with this flow.

This is another example as to why lead buyers need to be paying very close attention to the format and flow of websites–and not just looking at disclosure language. Some publishers apparently think this sort of thing is sufficient to obtain express written consent…

Be careful out there TCPAWorld.

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Published by Eric J. Troutman

The Czar of TCPAWorld Eric Troutman is one of the country’s prominent class action defense lawyers and is nationally recognized in Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) litigation and compliance. He has served as lead defense counsel in more than 70 national TCPA class actions and has litigated nearly a thousand individual TCPA cases in his role as national strategic litigation counsel for major banks and finance companies. He also helps industry participants build TCPA-compliant processes, policies, and systems. Eric has built a national litigation practice based upon deep experience, rigorous analysis and extraordinary responsiveness. Eric and his team feel equally at home litigating multibillion dollar telecommunications class actions in federal court as they do developing and executing national litigation strategies for institutions facing an onslaught of individual TCPA matters. They thrive in each of these roles – delivering consistently excellent results – while never losing sight of the client experience. While many firms now tout TCPA expertise, Eric has been there from the beginning. He built one of the country’s first TCPA-only defense teams and began serving as national TCPA counsel for his clients nearly a decade ago. This perspective allows him to swiftly develop the right litigation strategies for dealing with recurring problems, without wasting time on tactics that are bound to fail. Eric’s rich historical perspective and encyclopedic knowledge of the TCPA landscape also make him an invaluable resource to institutional compliance teams struggling to comply with the shifting regulatory landscape. No task is too small – or too big. Indeed, Eric and his team have helped build TCPA-compliant systems and processes for some of the largest and most complex corporate entities in the country. He commonly works with in-house compliance counsel to build and implement enterprise and business-line specific TCPA solutions, performs TCPA audits and drafts and reviews proposed TCPA policies and procedures. He and his team also have the technical expertise necessary to assist call centers seeking to develop TCPA-resistant call path architecture or to modify existing telephony and software integration to better insulate from potential TCPA exposure. Eric has built a reputation for thought leadership. An avid blogger and speaker, he has been at the forefront of the industry’s effort to push for clarity and a return to sanity for the TCPA for years. He was selected to advocate for the financial services industry on important TCPA issues before the Federal Communications Commission and co-authored the nation’s only comprehensive practice guide on TCPA defense. In his spare time, Eric leads defense teams representing banks and other financial services companies in consumer finance litigation matters. He has experience representing clients in UCC, TILA, RESPA FCRA, CCRA, CLRA, FDCPA, RFDCPA and FCCPA claims, as well as in fraud and bank operations issues.

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