HOW MUCH TROUBLE IS ROCKET MORTGAGE IN?: Company Takes Emergency Appeal as its TCPA Fight Over LowerMyBills.com Explodes

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How much trouble is Rocket Mortgage actually in?

That’s what reporters keep asking me. And its tough to say.

On the one hand, the company’s largest lead source (to my knowledge) was just found to be invalid.

DEATHKNELL?: Court Finds LowerMyBills.com Disclosure Unenforceable as Rocket Mortgage is HAMMERED in TCPA Class Action (And I was Right, AGAIN.)

Meaning that all of the robocalls Rocket Mortgage made in reliance on that source are potentially illegal under the TCPA. I am informed that Rocket bought millions of leads from LowerMyBills.com since 2018– and given Rocket Mortgage’s famously aggressive approach to robocalling I think we’re looking at hundreds of millions of calls at issue here.

And at $500.00 per call, well.. let’s just say Rocket’s current market cap is about $38BB and the theoretical exposure here would more than wipe that out entirely.

So, yeah. Pretty big deal.

But how much trouble is Rocket in really?

Unsurprisingly Rocket is fighting hard in the suit. It just filed an interlocutory appeal of the order denying arbitration in the case. And relying on the recent supreme court case of Coinbase, Inc. v. Bielski, 599 U.S. 736 (2023) Rocket has also asked the lower court to stay proceedings pending the outcome of the appeal.

Remains to be seen if the lower court case will be stayed– seems likely–but that just sets up the ULTIMATE appeal for Rocket.

If it loses the issue at the appellate level all leads from LowerMyBills.com would become junk–as a matter of law!– which doesn’t just impact Rocket but numerous other companies that also bought leads from LMB over the years.

My goodness. This is a massive issue for the entire lead generation industry.

If only someone could have seen this coming and warned everyone.

Oh year, that’s right. We did. Years ago. At LeadsCon.

Did anyone listen?

Relatedly, I’m noticing that some of the same old lawyers– you know the ones who told you oral express written consent was a thing and that the FCC definitely wasn’t going to adopt the one-to-one rule–are still getting stage time at industry events and webinars.

Heaven help you if you’re still listening to those folks.

But if you want RELIABLE information from KNOWLEDGEABLE lawyers (and Drips!) you might want to check out this (nearly sold out) webinar next week:

Chat soon.

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Published by Eric "Czar" 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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