Sirius XM Settles Telephone Consumer Protection Act Class Action for $32.4M
Under the terms of the settlement approved by a federal judge in Texas, claimants are entitled to a share of a $25 million settlement fund or three months of premium Sirius XM programming.
January 31, 2020 at 06:17 PM
3 minute read
The original version of this story was published on Daily Report
A federal judge in Texas gave final approval to a $32.4 million class action settlement resolving claims that satellite radio provider Sirius XM violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by making marketing calls to people registered with the national do-not-call registry.
The settlement, approved Wednesday by Senior Judge Sidney Fitzwater of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, includes more than $6.6 million in attorney fees and expenses.
The potential class numbers in the millions, with more than 433,000 claims forms already submitted, according to court filings.
Plaintiffs lawyers include W. Craft Hughes and Jarrett Ellzey with Hughes Ellzey in Houston; Henry Turner of Turner Law Offices in Decatur, Georgia; Aaron Siri and Mason Barney of Siri & Glimstad in New York; Douglas Werman of Werman Salas in Chicago and Daniel Hutchinson of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein in San Francisco.
Sirius is represented by a group of Jones Day lawyers including Lee Armstrong, Natalia Delaune, Thomas Demitrack, Sidney McClung and Albert Rota.
Turner said the lawyers are bound by a confidentiality agreement and cannot discuss the case.
The complaint and other filings indicate that it began when lead plaintiff, Texas resident Thomas Buchanan, bought a new Honda Odyssey van in 2016. Shortly afterward, a "welcome package" from Sirius arrived offering him a free trial offer.
Buchanan ignored the promotion but began receiving frequent marketing calls from Sirius: between July 19 and Aug. 4 of that year, he got 16 calls on his landline phone, which was registered with the do-not-call list.
He sent Sirius a cease-and-desist letter but continued to receive the calls, his complaint said.
He filed the class action in 2017.
The suit was stayed in early 2019 while the parties engaged in several months of mediation. A settlement was reached and a motion to approve it was filed in mid-January.
Under the terms of the settlement, the class includes anyone who signed up for the do-not-call registry between October 2013 and April 2019 and received more than one call from Sirius afterward or who received such calls after registering with Sirius' internal do-not-call list.
Individuals who file claims for are entitled to a pro rata share of a $25 million settlement fund, or may choose to receive a three-month subscription to Sirius XM's "All Access" programming, worth about $81.
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