Global Tel Link Lawsuit

• by Ayden
• December 5, 2021

Global Tel*Link has settled with the Federal Trade Commission to pay $ millions to settle a massive class action lawsuit claiming that the company violates the Telephone Consumer Protection Act when it sends automated text messages to millions of consumers. According to the complaint, Global Tel*Link operated pay as you go phones in violation of the TCPA when they automatically added charges to people’s bills. When they received a complaint, the company did not admit or denied the charges. Instead, they stated that they would review the charges on a case by case basis and make their determination.

The class action lawsuit claims that the practices of global tel link are deceptive and violate the TCPA. The complaint further claims that the company is not only using deception to charge their customers but that they deny doing so on a basis that is based on a subjective standard. For example, they will state that they will never charge phone rates to prisoners or people who cannot afford insurance. However, if one person complains about being charged for a premium rate that the prisoner could not afford, the company will state that they will carefully review the case to make sure that the prisoner does not have the ability to afford the premium. The class action lawsuit further claims that the company continues to violate the law by continuing to increase phone rates even after receiving a complaint from a customer.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of plaintiffs H.K. and K.R., who were incarcerated in the federal prison system. The complaint states that the defendants increased the prison phone rates without warning or justification. The complaint further claims that keefe group members were assigned numbers in the names of their family members to keep track of where they were. When one of the inmates decided to call the number and speak to an agent, he was told that the correctional officers did not allow calls from any other numbers. The correctional officers would then proceed to tell K.R. and H.K. that they would be prosecuted under the phone fraud provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act if they continued to make phone calls to the numbers assigned to them.

Global Tel Link is headquartered in California and has its primary investors; Clear Channel Communications, LLC and Capitalize Consulting L.P. The company also has significant subcontractors throughout the country. Approximately twenty-four states and the District of Columbia are involved in the lawsuit including California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington and West Virginia. The lawsuit further claims that the company did not provide adequate supervision of the jail activities and did not ensure that video visitation was provided to inmates. inmates were not allowed adequate opportunity to see the video during in-person visits.

The lawsuit further claims that the officers in the jail did not allow Global Tel Link to have a control over video chat or video visitation when it was not an option offered by the jail. Instead, the jail was obligated to allow Global Tel Link to provide access to certain programs through its servers. Through a process called “roaming”, the officers were able to change the settings on the prison’s computers to block video chat or video visitation. Without the proper setting controls, GCL was prohibited from providing this service to the inmates of the jail.

Global Tel Link is challenging the legality of the way that the jail managed its inmate phone system. In addition to the violations of constitutional and legal rights, the lawsuit also claims that the company did not provide supervision of the operations of the jail and did not provide evidence of a need for video chat or in-person visits. A motion to dismiss for these and other claims has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. If the court does not dismiss the case, it will be moved to a different federal court.

Global Tel*Link has settled with the Federal Trade Commission to pay $ millions to settle a massive class action lawsuit claiming that the company violates the Telephone Consumer Protection Act when it sends automated text messages to millions of consumers. According to the complaint, Global Tel*Link operated pay as you go phones in violation of…