Johnson v. Comodo Group

Johnson vs. Comodo Group (U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, Case No. 2:16-cv-04469)

In a class action complaint, Lemberg Law is representing Michael Johnson, who is suing Comodo Group, Inc. for alleged violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The complaint alleges that Comodo Group robocalled Mr. Johnson’s cell phone without his consent.

Comodo Group is an Internet security company that markets SSL certificates. The lawsuit outlines that, in an effort to market its SSL certificates, Comodo developed a campaign to robocall consumers’ telephones. The lawsuit alleges that Comodo didn’t obtain telephone numbers directly from consumers. It also states that, Comodo didn’t obtain consumers’ express written consent to robocall their telephones, as required by the TCPA.

Mr. Johnson says that he is not a Comodo customer, nor did he give Comodo his cell phone number. Nevertheless, he received robocalls from Comodo on his cell phone – even after he told Comodo that he didn’t want their products and asked them to stop calling. Mr. Johnson could tell they were robocalls because, when he answered his cell phone, he was met with dead air. The calls then disconnected without anyone coming on the line. Sometimes, Mr. Johnson was able to speak to a live representative, who asked him if he was interested in purchasing an SSL certificate. Mr. Johnson told them no, and asked them to stop calling him.

The two proposed classes of people represented are: 1) those in the U.S. who, between July 22, 2012 and July 22, 2016, received Comodo Group cell phone robocalls without their express written consent; and 2) those in the U.S. who, between July 22, 2012 and July 22, 2016, received at least one Comodo Group cell phone robocall after asking them to stop calling.

Update: The case is in its discovery phase.
Update: The class has been certified. Read the court’s ruling.