Class Action Lawsuit Filed Over Alleged South University Robocalls

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

A proposed class action has been filed against the entities alleged to be responsible for placing robocalls aimed at recruiting new students for South University.

According to the 18-page case, defendants Education Principle Foundation; South University – Member, LLC; South University, Savannah, LLC; and Yodel Technologies, LLC have placed the purportedly unlawful calls “as part of a misguided recruitment campaign to convince unwitting consumers to attend South University.” The lawsuit contends the automated communications, which the suit says begin with a prerecorded message and are then transferred to a live sales agent if the consumer responds to the prompts, violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) given the defendants have failed to obtain prior express consent to robocall proposed class members.

“Defendants are aware that the pre-recorded calls are prohibited by the TCPA without the recipient’s prior express consent,” the complaint alleges. “But they placed the calls anyway, even without the recipient’s prior consent. In so doing, the Defendants not only invaded the personal privacy of Plaintiff and members of the classes, but also intentionally and repeatedly violated the TCPA.”

The lawsuit claims the defendants, as “sophisticated companies,” could have easily avoided violating the law but, as a result of “lax corporate practices, a desperate campaign to recruit students, and the apparent lack of regard for the sensible restrictions of the TCPA,” have failed to do so.

Education Principle Foundation and subsidiaries South University – Member, LLC and South University, Savannah, LLC operate under the South University name at least 10 campuses that, according to the case, have “long struggled with financial stability.” The suit says the private, for-profit South University employs “admissions representatives” to conduct a phone recruitment campaign aimed at coercing prospective students to enroll. Yodel Technologies, for its part, acts as South University’s agent, lead generator and telemarketer by using an automated dialer to place telemarketing calls advertising the university’s educational services, the lawsuit says.

The plaintiff, who claims to have never had a business relationship with the defendants or expressed interest in attending South University, says he began receiving calls in early 2020 with a prerecorded message from “Tanner,” who was inquiring as to whether he was interested in going back to school. When the plaintiff was connected to a live agent, he would ask to speak to a manager, after which the calls were disconnected, the suit relays. During several calls in June 2020, the plaintiff heard “a pause of dead air followed by an audible ‘click’” before the prerecorded message from “Tanner” was played, according to the complaint. The plaintiff stated during all three June calls that he was not interested in the defendants’ services, the case says.

When the defendants called again in late July, the plaintiff played along in order to determine who kept calling him, and was transferred to a live agent who then transferred him to a representative of South University’s “student support line,” according to the suit. Although the plaintiff attempted to collect information about the purpose of the calls, the representative “suddenly stated she could not hear him and hung up,” the case relays.

The lawsuit alleges the calls were unlawful under the TCPA given the defendants had never obtained the plaintiff’s consent and placed more than one call during a 12-month period to a number that was listed on the National Do Not Call Registry—both “hallmark violations” of the TCPA, according to the suit.

Per the case, the plaintiff is “just one of the thousands” who have received South University’s allegedly illegal calls.

The lawsuit relays that South University had been “previously embroiled in a predatory recruitment and student loan scandal” that ultimately led the university to pay nearly $100 million to settle claims brought by the U.S. Department of Justice and a group of state attorneys general.

Yodel Technologies, for its part, was issued in March 2021 a cease-and-desist letter by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in which the agency stated that the telemarketer “is apparently transmitting illegal robocall traffic on behalf of one or more of its clients,” the suit relays. More recently, the now-bankrupt company agreed to settle a class action lawsuit filed over allegedly illegal telemarketing calls advertising NorthStar home security systems.

Get class action lawsuit news sent to your inbox – sign up for ClassAction.org’s newsletter here.