Class Action Settlement: Receive Up To $900 for Free Cruise Robocalls If you remember being bombarded with spam phone calls a few years ago letting you know you’ve “won a free cruise” (we here certainly do), you’re not alone; and, thanks to a recently-settled class action lawsuit, you may be eligible for compensation for these illegal, free cruise robocalls. From July 2009 through March 2014, Resort Marketing Group (“RMG”) – a company hired by the cruise lines Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian – made these annoying calls to consumers whose contact information they purchased from a third-party broker, which claimed to have collected the data from a series of websites unaffiliated with RMG or any of the cruise lines it represented. In 2012, a suit, Charvat v. Carnival et al, was filed alleging that the company was in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), which prohibits robocalls unless the person being called has given express written consent to be contacted in that manner by the caller. The Plaintiffs claimed that they never gave such consent to RMG, and in fact, the third-party broker who sold the contact information to RMG later admitted that it had purchased the data from another broker itself and was unable to verify the origin of the data. As a result of the TCPA violation, a federal judge approved the proposed settlement last month, granting claimants $300 for each spam phone call received up to a possible $900. Consumers can verify whether or not they are eligible here – keep in mind that claims must be filed before November 3, 2017 to be eligible for recompense. A final hearing for the case is scheduled for April 2, 2018, after which time funds will hopefully become available to claimants. Finally, some justice for the spammed! We hope that other companies who engage in such illegal practices will take notice of this suit and stop tying up our phone lines. If you believe you have been the victim of something similar, don’t hesitate to reach out to us! You can connect with us online through our online complaint portal, or email us directly at ConsiderTheConsumer@gmail.com.