Woman as a telemarketing customer service agent. Photo: Shutterstock

A West Hartford-based energy marketing business that depends on telemarketing calls has been sued by a Pennsylvania resident who claims the company violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by repeatedly calling him despite being on the national Do Not Call Registry.

Attorneys for plaintiff James Shelton e-filed the prospective class action lawsuit Sunday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, where Judge Vanessa Bryant was scheduled to hear the matter.

The lawsuit, on behalf of the prospective class, seeks $500 for each violation of the TCPA and $1,500 for each knowing and willful violation of the act. That would put Realgy Energy Services liable for millions of dollars in payments.

Anthony Paronich, the Hingham, Massachusetts-based solo practitioner representing Shelton told the Connecticut Law Tribune on Monday there could be "hundreds of thousands" of class members in the six-state area, including Connecticut and Pennsylvania, in which Realgy does business. .

Paronich declined to comment further on the lawsuit.

The 10-page lawsuit indicates Shelton received at least two calls this month from Realgy, despite being on the Do Not Call Registry, which went into effect when the TCPA enacted in 1991, prohibits companies from calling on the registry without prior written consent.

Shelton claims he never gave consent to receive telemarketing calls and that he was able to determine Realgy was making the calls by engaging with the telemarketer.

The lawsuit says the prospective class would include anyone who received calls from the West Hartford-based company within four years of the filing or since Dec. 22, 2015. Class members would be identified via phone records and phone number databases that would be obtained in discovery.

Telemarketers were reportedly calling more than 18 million Americans per day when the TCPA was enacted in 1991. Industry data indicates robocalls have been on the rise more recently, as the number of nuisance calls made each month increased from 831 million in September 2015 to 4.7 billion in December 2018, marking a 466% increase shortly more than three years.

The lawsuit also states the Federal Communications Commission continues to receive an increasing number of complaints about unwanted calls. According to the FCC website, the agency gets more than 200,000 complaints each year, which is about 60% of all of the complaints they receive.

The lawsuit asks the court to certify a proposed class, that the court appoint Shelton as a class representative and that the court enter a judgment permanently enjoining the defendant from using a prerecorded message absent an emergency. Class members would be eligible for statutory damages of $500 for individual violations and $1,500 for each knowing and willful violation.

Realgy had not assigned an attorney to the case as of Monday afternoon and the company did not respond to a request for comment.

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