PA Attorney General Files Suit against NY-Based Fluent for Their Role in the Illegal Distribution of Robocalls to PA Consumers

HARRISBURG– Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced today that his office filed a lawsuit against New York-based Fluent, Inc. – a company that connects advertisers to potential new customers through the consumers’ personal data – for their and their subsidiaries’ role in allegedly causing hundreds of thousands of unwanted robocalls to be placed to Pennsylvania consumers. Fluent and its subsidiaries Fluent LLC, CAC, American Prize Center, LLC, Deliver Technology, LLC, Rewardzone USA, LLC, and Samples & Savings USA, LLC, collected personal information, including telephone numbers, and that was then sold to telemarketing companies. This included the personal information of thousands of consumers on Pennsylvania’s Do Not Call List.

“If a Pennsylvania resident registers their phone number on the ‘Do-Not-Call’ List, it’s illegal for telemarketers to call them,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro said. “Every company is obligated to comply with state and federal telemarketing laws, and Fluent failed to comply. These invasive robocalls are a growing problem – Fluent’s phony actions cannot be used to obtain consumer’s consent to receive unwanted calls.”

Consumers’ information was obtained by Fluent through the consumers’ efforts to register to receive promotional offerings, including gift cards to popular retailers such as Amazon and Walmart. These promotional opportunities consistently failed to include clear and obvious disclosures that warn consumers that if they provide their contact information, they are consenting to receive telemarketing calls from hundreds of potential sellers. These sellers’ products and services are oftentimes not related to the promotional offerings whatsoever...