Keller Williams Realty is in the hot seat again when it comes to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The TCPA prevents parties from making telemarketing calls to consumers without consent, including calls to phone numbers that are registered on the National Do Not Call registry (“DNC”).
Plaintiff Sydney Thayer filed a lawsuit against the real estate company last Thursday in U.S. District Court in Rochester, New York.
The complaint claims that “to promote its services, the defendant engages in aggressive unsolicited telemarketing, harming thousands of consumers in the process. Defendant utilizes aggressive marketing to push its products and services without regards to consumers’ rights under the TCPA.”
Beginning in April 2024 and lasting through at least March 2025, Thayer claims that she received text messages from Keller Williams agents advertising their real estate services. Thayer’s phone number has been on the national do not call registry since late April 2018.
“At no point in time did Plaintiff provide Defendant with her express written consent to be contacted,” the complaint states. “Specifically, Plaintiff never completed any type of form that clearly and conspicuously authorized Defendant to contact Plaintiff’s residential cellular telephone with marketing text messages.”
Additionally, the complaint notes that Thayer had no existing relationship with Keller Williams or any of its agents.
The complaint claims that Keller Williams violated the TCPA by “initiating, or causing to be initiated, telephone solicitations to telephone subscribers such as Plaintiff and the Do Not Call Registry Class members who registered their respective telephone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry.”
Thayer also claims that the actions taken by Keller Williams Realty have resulted in “the invasion of privacy, harassment, aggravation, and disruption of the daily life of thousands of individuals.”
In addition to seeking class action status, Thayer is demanding a jury trail as well as actual and statutory damages and an injunction requiring Keller Williams “to cease all unsolicited text messaging activity, and to otherwise protect the interests of the Class.”
In an emailed comment a spokesperson for Keller Williams said the firm was aware of the lawsuit.
“We’re aware of the lawsuit alleging a TCPA violation by a real estate agent affiliated with one of our independently owned franchisees, and we are reviewing the matter,” the spokesperson wrote.
The company was named in a separate TCPA suit filed in Texas in April 2024. The suit was dismissed earlier this year for the failure to state a claim.
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