On November 17, the named plaintiff in Toney v. Quality Resources, Inc., et al. asked an Illinois federal court for final approval of a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) class action settlement agreement.
As background, in December 2012, Sarah Toney ordered three pairs of children’s slippers online from a website operated by Stompeez. The website required Toney to provide her telephone number in order to complete the order. The site specified that the phone number would be used “for questions about order.” Toney subsequently began to receive telephone calls on her cell phone, and she claimed that the calls were made by Quality Resources, Inc. as a part of a combined and concerted telemarketing effort. More specifically, Stompeez allegedly sold Toney’s and the putative class members’ information to Quality Resources. Quality Resources would contact consumers to confirm that the consumers’ contact information was correct and also to engage in an “up sell” to the consumer, in order to sell other goods and services of Sempris LLC, unrelated to Stompeez or Quality Resources. Toney filed her class action complaint against the companies in January 2013.
After more than three years of litigation, the parties reached a settlement, which was preliminarily approved by the Court in August 2016. The settlement provides that Sempris will pay $2.15 million into a common fund. The settlement class consists of “all persons who are or were the subscribers and/or customary users of the telephone numbers on the Class List, and to whom, from January 3, 2009 through the date of preliminary approval, Quality Resources, Inc., made a call or calls in connection with Stompeez Kids Slippers purchases.” According to records obtained in discovery, there are 64,106 unique telephone numbers attributable to the settlement class members.
Because the Settlement only resolves claims against Sempris, and leaves open claims against Quality Resources, Sempris has also agreed to assign the Plaintiff and the settlement class any rights to indemnity or subrogation against Quality Resources for claims arising out of this action.
Troutman Sanders will continue to monitor the case for the Court’s order granting final approval.