Popular real estate company Keller Williams has agreed to a $40 million settlement to end a class action lawsuit that accused them of cold calling individuals on the National Do Not Call Registry.

The lawsuit which was brought forward by plaintiff Beverly DeShay in June 2022 accuses the real estate giant of violating the Telephone Consumers Protection Act (TCPA). This 1991 law was implemented as a way to protect consumers from unsolicited cold calls including contacting individuals via pre-recorded messages who were listed on the National Do Not Call Registry.

According to DeShay’s Lawsuit, Keller Williams consistently violated this law by engaging in pre-recorded cold-calling tactics to individuals who were protected under the Registry. The 2020 lawsuit is not the first of its kind against the company. In 2019, Keller Williams was hit with a similar lawsuit accusing them of violating TCPA.

DeShay’s lawsuit accused the national realtor brokerage of providing a marketing plan to realtors throughout its franchises that included unsolicited telemarketing on expired listings. As a result, DeShay shared that she received numerous unwanted phone calls on her cell phone. DeShay’s lawsuit also highlights the nuisance that telemarketing, robocalling, and cold calling have become for American consumers. The complaint shares that “Robocalls and telemarketing calls are currently the number one source of consumer complaints at the FCC.”

The lawsuit also contained a number of screenshots from voice recordings left on DeShay’s voicemails. Despite registering her number on the Do Not Call list, DeShay argued that Keller Williams knowingly contacted her and others who were registered on the list, a clear violation of TCPA. DeShay also shares that the company continued to contact her even though she never gave Keller Williams or her Keller Williams agent permission to contact her via a prerecorded message.

Despite the $40 million settlement, the company has not agreed to any wrongdoing. However, they have agreed to the settlement as a way to end lengthy and costly litigation.

In addition to paying impacted customers up to $20 for the persistent calls, the company has agreed to establish a TCPA task force. Under this task force, the company will enhance its compliance with federal law to avoid violating TCPA in the future. Keller Williams has also agreed to make the law and National Do Not Call Registry resources more readily available to Keller Williams franchises around the country in an effort to educate its realtors.

Plaintiffs eligible for this settlement include individuals who received two or more calls from Keller Williams on a phone number that was listed on the National Do Not Call Registry. Such calls would have included artificial or pre-recorded messages that were sent out via an automatic dialing System since at least May 2nd, 2014.