On behalf of Jodie Cowan and other consumers, Sergei Lemberg of Lemberg Law has filed a class action lawsuit against GE Capital Retail Bank in U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut. The complaint alleges, “As part of its servicing of retail installment contracts, GE uses automated dialing systems to bombard unsuspecting consumers with automated calls” in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

The lawsuit alleges that GE Capital Retail Bank placed automated calls to Cowan’s cell phone even though she had never given the company her cell phone number or consent to be called. “[GE] used its ATDS [Automated Telephone Dialing System] to make each of the calls to [Ms. Cowan] on her cellular phone,” reads the complaint.

The class action complaint alleges that when General Electric obtained Cowan’s “telephone number by buying it from third-party sources.” The complaint proposes that the court certify the following class: “All persons within the United States who received any telephone calls from defendant or their agent(s) and/or employee(s) to said person’s cellular telephone made through the use of any automatic telephone dialing system and/or using an artificial or prerecorded voice within the four years prior to the filing of this complaint where the defendant obtained the cellular telephone number from a source other than the called party.”

The lawsuit asks the court to issue an injunction prohibiting future violations of the TCPA, as well as statutory damages of $500 per call or up to $1,500 per call for each “knowing and/or willful violation of the TCPA.”