Class action targets companies' phone calls

WHEELING – Three companies are the targets of a class action lawsuit for allegedly violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by endorsing their Web site through pre-recorded phone calls.

Diana Mey filed the putative class action lawsuit on July 30 in Ohio Circuit Court against The Pep Boys-Manny, Moe and Jack, Southwest Vehicle Management and Lanelogic Inc.

Despite a Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which bans automated or pre-recorded calls to a home except with permission, Mey says The Pep Boys, Southwest and Lanelogic called her residential number on June 12, 2008, after seeing an Internet ad her son had placed in an attempt to sell a used vehicle.

In the ad, which Mey's son posted on Craigslist.com, he provided the Meys' residential phone number as contact information about the vehicle, according to the complaint.

During the pre-recorded call Mey received on June 12, Pep Boys, Southwest and Lanelogic informed her of their Web site, caroffer.com, which the three companies had formed to buy used vehicles, the suit states.

Pep Boys, Southwest and Lanelogic began making the calls after they formed a partnership in early 2008, the complaint says.

Under the partnership, Mey claims customers interested in selling their used vehicle could visit caroffer.com, a Web site owned and operated by Lanelogic. There, the customer could provide information about the car, then a market price would be assigned to it, according to the complaint.

The customer would then bring the car to a Pep Boys, where the car's condition would be verified and a check would be issued to the customer, the suit states.

"To promote their partnership and/or joint venture, the Defendants and their agents, upon information and belief, utilized computers to search the Internet for used car listings," the complaint says.

But Mey says she received a phone call without the companies first acquiring her consent, which she says is a violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

Mey says the call was sent to many other people throughout West Virginia and the United States, and she wants to give anyone who has received the call the opportunity to be part of the class action suit.

In the three-count suit, Mey is asking the court to rule that Pep Boys, Southwest and Lanelogic be prevented from engaging in future telemarketing through pre-recorded messages and be prohibited from destroying any documents that could be used to identify class members.

She is also asking the court to certify the putative class and that she and the class be awarded statutory damages and other relief the court deems just.

John W. Barrett and Jonathan R. Marshall of Bailey and Glasser in Charleston will be representing her.

Ohio Circuit Court case number: 09-C-238