Online Marketing Co. Facing Class Action Over Alleged Robocalls

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Broadleaf Marketing & SEO, LLC faces a proposed class action that alleges the company has placed unlawful, prerecorded telemarketing calls to the owners of phone numbers on the National Do-Not-Call Registry. 

The 13-page lawsuit, filed in Tennessee on October 1, claims Broadleaf did not obtain consent of any kind before placing the alleged robocalls. According to the complaint, the Florida-based marketing and search engine optimization company’s autodialed calling practices violate the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which prohibits “any telephone solicitation” to a number on the National Do-Not-Call Registry, the case says.

“Plaintiff has done no business with Broadleaf and has never provided Broadleaf with prior express written consent to call her cellular telephone registered on the National Do-Not-Call Registry,” the complaint reads. 

The suit alleges one such autodialed call from Broadleaf began with the following prerecorded message inquiring about the plaintiff’s “Google business listing”: 

“Hello! And please don’t hang up. We’ve tried to contact you numerous times about your Google business listing. Our records show your Google business listing may be suspended or not verified through Google. This can cause customers searching for your services to not be able to find your business online. Press 1 to speak with a listing pro expert so we can quickly check the status of your Google business listing. This will only take a few minutes.” 

The lawsuit claims other prerecorded messages utilized by Broadleaf are “similar in nature and focus” with regard to Google verifications of business listings and suggest a consumer’s listing is “not verified” or has some other problem. 

The plaintiff claims to have received at least 17 robocalls from Broadleaf between January 2020 and February 2021. Each call seems to have come from a “spoofed” number, appearing to originate in Tennessee despite the fact that Broadleaf is located in Florida, the lawsuit says. 

Per the case, the plaintiff, after failed attempts to get the calls to stop, engaged a Broadleaf representative in an attempt to identify the source of the calls. The plaintiff identified the telemarketer as “Web Listing Solutions,” which the lawsuit alleges is a fictitious name used by Broadleaf to “avoid detection while it engages in its illegal telemarketing practices.” 

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