YVONNE GONZALEZ ROGERS, District Judge.
Plaintiffs Abante Rooter and Plumbing, Inc., Mark Hankins, and Philip K. Charvat bring this punitive class action against defendants Alarm.com, Inc. and Alarm.com Holdings, Inc. (collectively "Alarm.com") alleging four counts; namely violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act ("TCPA") for calls made to (i) cellular telephones and (ii) residential telephone lines; and violations of 47 C.F.R. Section 64.1200(c) and 47 U.S.C. Section 227(c)(5) for (iii) failure to follow procedures for maintaining a list of persons who request not to receive telemarketing calls; and (iv) for calls made to members of the National Do-Not-Call Registry ("DNC registry").
Now before the Court is plaintiffs' motion for class certification. (Dkt. No. 85, "Motion").
On March 28, 2017, Alarm.com filed motions to strike the expert reports of (i) Anya Verkhovakaya and (ii) Jeffery Hansen and (iii) the declaration of Rachel Hoover. (Dkt. Nos. 98, 100, 102.)
Having carefully considered the papers submitted, the pleadings in this action, the admissible evidence, and oral argument held on May 5, 2017, the Court
Plaintiffs are consumers and a small business that allegedly received telemarketing calls from Alliance or its agents, allegedly on behalf of Alarm.com. (Dkt. No. 1, Class Action Complaint ("Complaint") at ¶ 2.) Plaintiffs allege that Alliance or its agents made these calls to (i) cell phone numbers using an automatic dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice; (ii) residential numbers using an artificial or prerecorded voice, and (iii) numbers on the DNC registry. (Id. at ¶¶ 157-164, 169-174.)
Alarm.com is a publicly traded company incorporated in Delaware, with its principal place of business in Virginia. (Id. at ¶ 9.) It sells cloud-based home automation, monitoring and security services. (Id. at ¶¶ 1, 21.) Alarm.com uses a network of 6,000 third-party security system dealers and service providers, including Alliance Security ("Alliance"), to sell subscriptions to its services.
Alliance sells, installs, and services fully-integrated security systems. (Dkt. No. 94, Declaration of Matthew Pitts ("Pitts Decl.") at ¶ 8.) To provide these integrated systems, Alliance contracts with companies that manufacture hardware components (e.g. Honeywell), develop the "necessary software system for components to communicate part of an integrated system" (e.g. Alarm.com), and monitor the alarm systems and contract emergency services when the alarm is triggered (e.g. Monitronics). (Dkt. No. 95, Declaration of Anne Ferguson ("Ferguson Decl.") at ¶¶ 3, 6.) Alliance thus sells to consumers an integrated system of Alarm.com and non-Alarm.com products and services. In support of its sales efforts, Alliance uses Nationwide Alarms, LLC ("Nationwide") to conduct telemarketing. (Complaint at ¶¶ 37, 83.)
Alarm.com provides its dealers with resources and support. It encourages dealers to use the Alarm.com logo and to include the slogan, "powered by Alarm.com," on their websites. (Terrell Decl., Ex. 3 at 92:16-94:9.) Since at least 2012, Alarm.com has also drafted scripts for dealers to use when making telephone calls to potential customers. (Id. at 95:20-97:9.) Its "Premier Partner Program" rewards high-performing dealers by providing them with additional sales and marketing tools, a marketing allowance, and an opportunity to participate in Alarm.com's Customer Lead Service ("CLS") program. (Terrell Decl., Ex. 2 at 10834-35.) Alarm.com provides these dealers with leads on potential customers that inquire about Alarm.com's products and services through its website or a customer service representative. (Terrell Decl., Ex. 3 at 31:18-32:5.) These potential customers' numbers are compiled in Alarrm.com's CLS database. Alarm.com highlights its strong relationship with dealers by promoting them on its website. It further supports dealers though a "partner portal" that enables dealers to create customer accounts, access subscriber information, and receive support, documentation, and training. (Terrell Decl., Ex. 4 at 16671.)
Rule 702 permits opinion testimony by an expert as long as the witness is qualified and their opinion is relevant and reliable. Fed. R. Evid. 702. An expert witness may be qualified by "knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education." Fed. R. Evid. 702.
At the class certification stage, courts analyze challenges to expert testimony under the standards set forth in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993). See Ellis, 657 F.3d at 982. "[A]t this early stage, robust gatekeeping of expert evidence is not required; rather, the court should ask only if expert evidence is useful in evaluating whether class certification requirements have been met." Culley v. Lincare, Inc., No. 2:15-CV-00081-MCE-CMK, 2016 WL 4208567, at *1 (E.D. Cal. 2016) (quoting Tait v. BSH Home Appliances Corp., 289 F.R.D. 466, 492-93 (C.D. Cal. 2012). The trial judge has discretion to determine reasonable measures of reliability. Kumho Tire Co. v. Carmichael, 526 U.S. 137, 153 (1999).
The proponent of expert testimony has the burden of proving admissibility in accordance with Rule 702. Fed. R. Evid. 702, Advisory Committee Notes (2000 amendments). An expert should be permitted to testify if the proponent demonstrates that: (i) the expert is qualified; (ii) the evidence is relevant to the suit; and (iii) the evidence is reliable. See Thompson v. Whirlpool Corp., No. C06-1804-JCC, 2008 WL 2063549, at *3 (W.D. Wash. 2008) (citing Daubert, 509 U.S. at 589-90).
Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(a), the Court may certify a class only where "(1) the class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable; (2) there are questions of law or fact common to the class; (3) the claims or defenses of the representative parties are typical of the claims or defenses of the class; and (4) the representative parties will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class." Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(a). Courts refer to these four requirements as "numerosity, commonality, typicality[,] and adequacy of representation." Mazza v. Am. Honda Motor Co., Inc., 666 F.3d 581, 588 (9th Cir. 2012).
Once the threshold requirements of Rule 23(a) are met, plaintiffs must then show "through evidentiary proof" that a class is appropriate for certification under one of the provisions in Rule 23(b). Comcast Corp. v. Behrend, 133 S.Ct. 1426, 1432 (2013). Here, plaintiffs seek certification under Rule 23(b)(3), which requires plaintiffs to establish "that the questions of law or fact common to class members predominate over any questions affecting only individual members, and that a class action is superior to other available methods for fairly and efficiently adjudicating the controversy." Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(b)(3). The predominance inquiry focuses on "whether proposed classes are sufficiently cohesive to warrant adjudication by representation." Hanlon v. Chrysler Corp., 150 F.3d 1011, 1022 (9th Cir. 1998) (quoting Amchem Prods., Inc. v. Windsor, 521 U.S. 591, 623 (1997)).
"[A] court's class-certification analysis must be `rigorous' and may `entail some overlap with the merits of the plaintiff's underlying claim.'" Amgen, Inc. v. Conn. Ret. Plans & Trust Funds, 133 S.Ct. 1184, 1194 (2013) (quoting Wal-Mart, 564 U.S. at 351); see also Mazza, 666 F.3d at 588. The Court considers the merits to the extent they overlap with the Rule 23 requirements. Ellis, 657 F.3d at 983. The Court must resolve factual disputes as "necessary to determine whether there was a common pattern and practice that could affect the class as a whole." Id. (Emphasis in original.) "When resolving such factual disputes in the context of a motion for class certification, district courts must consider `the persuasiveness of the evidence presented.'" Aburto v. Verizon Cal., Inc., No. 11-CV-03683, 2012 WL 10381, at *2 (C.D. Cal. 2012) (quoting Ellis, 657 F.3d at 982), abrogated on other grounds as recognized by Shiferaw v. Sunrise Sen. Living Mgmt., Inc., No. 13-CV-2171, 2014 WL 12585796, at * 24n. 16 (C.D. Cal. June 11, 2014). "A party seeking class certification must affirmatively demonstrate [its] compliance with the Rule." Wal-Mart, 564 U.S. at 350. Ultimately, the Court exercises its discretion to determine whether a class should be certified. Califano v. Yamasaki, 442 U.S. 682, 703 (1979).
The Court begins it analysis with the motions to strike, as defendants' arguments on the class certification motion stem, in part, from these challenges.
Plaintiffs offer Ms. Verkhovskaya, Chief Operating Officer of a class action administration firm, to opine that the DNC class contains nearly 400,000 members. (Terrell Decl., Ex. 25 (Expert Report of Anya Verkhovskaya, A.B. Data, Ltd. ("Verkhovskaya Report")) at ¶ 33.) Defendants do not challenge Ms. Verkhovskaya's qualifications. Rather, defendants contend that Ms. Verkhovskaya's calculations are flawed because she included (i) all unique residential calls in her dataset, not just those that promoted Alarm.com; (ii) individuals that may have consented, and (iii) used Lexis Nexis data, which has an error rate of up to 14%, to remove business numbers from her output list.
With regard to the first issue, the Court understands defendants' argument that the calls may not have identified Alarm.com by name. However, plaintiffs' theory acknowledges the lack of call mentions, and posits that it does not matter. Thus, under plaintiffs' theory, it is proper for Ms. Verkhovskaya to include all unique residential telephone numbers in her dataset because plaintiffs position is that all calls promoted an integrated system including Alarm.com. That defendants do not agree with this theory does not require exclusion of Ms. Verkhovskaya's opinions.
Second, with regard to Ms. Verkhovskaya's inclusion of individuals that may have consented through the website or by contacting Alarm.com, the Court agrees that her calculations overreach and must be adjusted by removing individuals that inquired about Alarm.com's products or services prior to receiving a call. However, this only requires modification, by removing telephone numbers from her output list that appear in Alarm.com's CLS records, and will not affect her output figure of nearly 400,000 enough to undermine numerosity. Modification, not exclusion, is appropriate.
Finally, the Court finds that defendants' objection to Ms. Verkhovskaya's use of Lexis Nexis data to remove business numbers from her output list relates to the weight of her opinion, not exclusion. Another court rejected a similar challenge to her methodology in Krakauer, finding that Ms. Verkhovskaya properly used Lexis Nexis data to remove business numbers from her output list because it was the type of data reasonably relied upon by experts in the field and the 14% error rate was not "unreasonably high for these particular circumstances." See Krakauer v. Dish Network, L.L.C, 2015 WL 5227693, at *8-9 (M.D.N.C. Sept. 8, 2015). This Court concurs.
For the reasons above, defendants' motion to strike the expert report of Anya Verkhovskaya is
Plaintiffs offer Mr. Hansen, an electronic data analyst, to opine on the methodology he would use to determine how many cell phone numbers Alliance or its agents called using an automatic telephone dialing system as it relates to the requirement of numerosity. Defendants do not contest Mr. Hansen's qualifications, but argue that Mr. Hansen's report should be stricken because he offers no opinion or analysis of any kind. The report baldly describes the steps Mr. Hansen would have taken to analyze relevant data, but he was never provided with the relevant data.
Plaintiffs' own papers concede that Mr. Hansen's report merely describes the analysis that "could be performed" and "can be conducted with the call data." (Dkt. No. 110, Opposition to Defendants' Motion to Strike Expert Report of Jeffery Hansen at 1.) Their main argument is that at class certification, the rules regarding admissibility of evidence are relaxed. See Kristensen v. Credit Payment Servs., 12 F.Supp.3d 1292, 1303 (D. Nev. 2014). Plaintiffs rely on two Northern District of California cases, Rai and Ralston, to argue that an expert report can be admitted at the class certification stage if it contains possible opinions on an articulated methodology even though it lacks the actual analysis. Rai v. Santa Clara Valley Transp. Auth., 308 F.R.D. 245, 263-64 (N.D. Cal. 2015); Ralston v. Mortg. Investors Grp., Inc., No. 08-536-JF (PSG), 2011 WL 6002640, at *9 (N.D. Cal. 2011). Rai and Ralston, however, do not support such a broad proposition. Both cases addressed the issue of whether damages experts must conduct a fulsome analysis at the class certification stage. Rai, 308 F.R.D. at 263-64; Ralston, 2011 WL 6002640, at *9. Mr. Hansen, by contrast, has offered no analysis. For the reasons above, defendants' motion to strike the expert report of Jeffery Hansen is
Alarm.com has also moved to strike Ms. Hoover's declaration on the grounds that Ms. Hoover (i) is not an expert; (ii) does not have the qualifications to perform the analysis noted in her declaration; and (iii) has no knowledge about the reliability of the records she analyzed.
Here, plaintiffs do not offer Ms. Hoover as an expert, nor is expert testimony required for the straightforward summary noted in her declaration. According to her declaration, Ms. Hoover took six Excel files that contained records of calls made by Nationwide, used a "data preparation, blending, and analytics program called Alteryx" to combine the records into a single database, removed obviously incorrect telephone number entries that contained fewer than ten digits, used Alteryx to separate cell from residential telephone numbers, and cross-checked to determine whether any numbers may have been reassigned from cell to residential, or vice versa. (Dkt. No. 87, Declaration of Rachel E. Hoover ("Hoover Decl.") at ¶¶ 2-8.) The Court finds that expert testimony is not necessary to perform this type of tabulation. See Kristensen, 12 F. Supp. 3d at 1304; Villanueva v. Liberty Acquisitions Servicing, LLC, No. 3:14-cv-01610-HZ, 2017 WL 1021523, at *4 (D. Or. Jan. 13, 2017) (relying on data analysis conducted by attorney and attorney's staff to establish numerosity). The fact that Ms. Hoover had no personal knowledge of the data does not render her declaration unreliable, as Nationwide produced this data pursuant to a subpoena. (Hoover Decl. at ¶ 2.)
For the reasons above, defendants' motion to strike the declaration of Rachel Hoover is
Plaintiffs contend that they have established all requirements for certification of a damages class under Rule 23(b)(3). Alarm.com challenges all elements except for typicality. With respect to numerosity, defendants only challenge the Cell Phone Class and Residential Class. With respect to adequacy, defendants only challenge Mr. Chavart of the DNC Class.
In light of the issues presented, the Court will first address commonality under Rule 23(a) together with predominance under Rule 23(b)(3). See, e.g., Collins v. ITT Educ. Servs., Inc., No. 12-CV-1395, 2013 WL 6925827, at *3 (S.D. Cal. 2013) (addressing commonality and predominance together) (citing Amchem Prods., 521 U.S. at 609 ("Rule 23(a)(2)'s `commonality' requirement is subsumed under, or superseded by, the more stringent Rule 23(b)(3) requirement that questions common to the class `predominate over' other questions.")); Steven Ades & Hart Woolery v. Omni Hotels Mgmt. Corp., No. 13-CV-2468, 2014 WL 4627271, at *8 (C.D. Cal. 2014). The Court will then address in turn the remaining factors under Rules 23(a) and 23(b)(3) — numerosity, typicality, adequacy, and superiority.
Rule 23(a)(2) requires that the party seeking certification show that "there are questions of law or fact common to the class." Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(a)(2). To satisfy this requirement, a common question "must be of such a nature that it is capable of classwide resolution—which means that the determination of its truth or falsity will resolve an issue that is central to the validity of each one of the claims in one stroke." Wal-Mart, 564 U.S. at 350. The existence of common questions itself will not satisfy the commonality requirement, and instead, "[w]hat matters to class certification . . . is . . . the capacity of a classwide proceeding to generate common answers apt to drive the resolution of the litigation." Id. at 350 (citation omitted) (emphasis in original). The predominance inquiry under Rule 23(b)(3) is "far more demanding." See Amchem Prods., 521 U.S. at 623-24.
Here, class members' claims hinge on several common questions; namely whether (1) Alarm.com is liable for Alliance's conduct; (2) Alliance is liable for the conduct of Alliance's agent, Nationwide; (3) the calls in question promoted Alarm.com; (4) Alliance or its agents called numbers on the DNC registry; (5) Alliance or its agents called cell numbers using a prerecorded message; and (6) Alliance or its agents placed calls to residential numbers using a prerecorded message. Defendants concede that five of the six questions listed are, in fact, common questions. Defendants focus their attack on the topic of whether "the calls in question promoted Alarm.com."
As to the first issue, the gravamen of plaintiffs' theory is that Alarm.com is vicariously liable for calls made by Alliance or its agents because the calls promoted Alarm.com. Even if some of Alliance's calls did promote Alarm.com, defendants contend, the evidence reflects that not all calls were made for that purpose as Alarm.com generally was not mentioned by name on the calls and some calls resulted in installations of security systems with no Alarm.com components
Defendants do not persuade. The mere fact that Alliance generally did not mention Alarm.com on the calls does raise a predominant individual issue. Plaintiffs have provided scripts, which evidence a consistent approach to making telephone calls. (Pitts Decl., Exh. A at ALLIANCE _00010-21.) These scripts have at least two critical common features: (i) none specifically mentions Alarm.com and (ii) all stress that customers can purchase an "interactive cellular service," tout its benefits ("arm and disarm the system from your cell phone...[and it] comes with the fastest response time in the industry") and reveal its price. (Id. at ALLIANCE_000011, see also ALLIANCE_000013, 15-16, 19.) Further, the calls in question were made pursuant to a contract between Alliance and Alarm.com. Under the contract, Alliance has the right "to market and sell Alarm.com Services," and "shall be solely responsibility for all sales and associated activities." (Dkt. No. 86, Exh. 5 at ALARM-0000005 at ¶ 3.) It is obligated to use "best efforts to market and sell Alarm.com Services." (Id.) The agreement was modified in 2015 to make Alarm.com "Alliance's exclusive supplier for all broadband and Interactive Services and wireless services." (Id. at ALARM-0000016 at ¶ 1.3.) Alarm.com has made no showing that the extent to which Alliance promoted Alarm.com varied significantly from call-to-call requiring an individualized inquiry. Whether a call from Alliance ultimately resulted in installation of a system with an Alarm.com component is circumstantial evidence and certainty not dispositive. The question at class certification is whether common evidence exists to answer the question, not whether plaintiffs will ultimately prevail.
With respect to the second issue, Alarm.com's CLS records indicate that certain recipients of the calls at issue initiated contact with Alarm.com by inquiring about its products and services and therefore should not be part of the class. (Dkt. No. 96, Declaration of Angeleen Rohda ("Rohda Decl.") at ¶ 4; Ex. 14.) The CLS records include three groups: individuals that (i) input their telephone number on Alarm.com's website and clicked a box indicating consent to be called; (ii) called an Alarm.com customer service representative but were not presented with a consent waiver; and (iii) previously purchased an Alarm.com product. (Rohda Decl. at ¶ 4.) Because the CLS records provide no way to isolate these groups, Alarm.com argues, there is no classwide means to determine whether these individuals consented to the calls.
The Court agrees that these individuals may have consented, but defendants' concerns can be resolved through narrowing the proposed class definitions, rather than exclusion. Thus, modifying the class definitions to exclude three groups that arguably consented; namely those that (i) visited Alarm.com's website and typed in their telephone number, (ii) called an Alarm.com customer service representative and (iii) had an existing business relationship with Alarm.com, will resolve the individualized consent issue that Alarm.com raises.
As for the final issue, that is whether the proposed DNC Class overlaps with the proposed classes in Monitronics and if so how to apportion liability against Alliance, Monitronics, and several other defendants, the Court finds that the concerns do not prohibit certification. Apportionment of liability is a common issue across members of the DNC Class. See Birchmier, 302 F.R.D. at 253 ("whether a particular defendant is liable is not an individual issue among class members"). No individual inquiry is necessary because defendants have made no showing that the apportionment should differ from plaintiff-to-plaintiff. Whatever the ultimate apportionment may be, it can be applied on a classwide basis. Further, the risk of double recovery can easily be addressed, if necessary, by providing Alarm.com with an offset against any recovery that the Monitronics plaintiffs obtain in their litigation.
Thus, the Court finds that common issues predominate with respect to all of the proposed classes, as modified by the Court.
Rule 23(a) requires that each proposed class be "so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable." Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(a)(1). Plaintiffs need not state an exact number to meet the threshold requirements of Rule 23. Rather, the rule "requires examination of the specific facts of each case and imposes no absolute limitations." Gen. Tel. Co. of the Nw. Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Comm'n, 446 U.S. 318, 330 (1980); see also Gold v. Midland Credit Mgmt., Inc., 306 F.R.D. 623, 630 (N.D. Cal. 2014); see, e.g., Patrick v. Marshall, 460 F.Supp. 23, 29 (N.D. Cal. 1978) (certifying class with at least thirty-nine potential members). A class or subclass with more than 40 members "raises a presumption of impracticability [of joinder] based on numbers alone." Hernandez v. Cnty. of Monterey, 305 F.R.D. 132, 152-53 (N.D. Cal. 2015).
The Court finds that plaintiffs' showing of numerosity is sufficient as to each class. Plaintiffs offer expert testimony that the DNC Class consists of nearly 400,000 members. (Verkhovskaya Report at ¶¶ 9-26.) Alarm.com has moved to strike Ms. Verkhovskaya's expert report, but this challenge fails for the reasons discussed in Section III.A, supra. With regard to the Residential and Cell Phone classes, plaintiffs offer Ms. Hoover's lay declaration that each class has nearly 20,000 members. (Hoover Decl. at ¶¶ 11-12.) Alarm.com has moved to strike Ms. Hoover's declaration, but this challenge fails for the reasons discussed in Section III.C, supra.
To satisfy typicality, plaintiffs must establish that the "claims or defenses of the representative parties are typical of the claims or defenses of the class." Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(a)(3). Defendants concede plaintiffs have made a sufficient showing of typicality. The Court concurs.
Rule 23(a)'s adequacy requirement considers "(1) [whether] the representative plaintiffs and their counsel have any conflicts of interest with other class members, and (2) [if] the representative plaintiffs and their counsel [will] prosecute the action vigorously on behalf of the class." Staton v. Boeing, 327 F.3d 938, 957 (9th Cir. 2003). Alarm.com argues that plaintiffs have failed to satisfy adequacy with regard to the DNC Class. It does not contend that Charvat or counsel have any conflicts of interest, nor do they contest that counsel will not prosecute the action vigorously on behalf of the class. Rather, Alarm.com claims that Charvat is not a member of the DNC Class because he did not receive calls that promoted Alarm.com. Specifically, defendants highlight that Alarm.com was not mentioned until the sixth call Charvat received, when Charvat specifically asked Alliance about Alarm.com. (Charvat Dep. at 176:13-25, 177:1-3.) Plaintiffs counter that whether calls from Alliance promoted Alarm.com is a common issue across all members of the DNC Class.
As an initial matter, defendants' argument is more aptly addressed as one of typicality, not adequacy. Further, as previously discussed herein, plaintiffs' theory of harm is not based on the assumption that Alliance or its agents specifically mentioned Alarm.com during the calls in question. Therefore the Court finds that Charvat's showing of adequacy is sufficient and that both plaintiffs' counsel and the other named plaintiffs satisfy the requirements of Rule 26(a).
Lastly, Rule 23(b)(3) requires a finding that a class action is superior to individual suits. To make this determination, the Court considers the following four non-exhaustive factors: (1) the interests of members of the class in individual controlling the prosecution or defense of separate actions; (2) the extent and nature of any litigation concerning the controversy already commenced by or against the members of the class; (3) the desirability of concentrating the litigation of the claims in the particular forum; and (4) the difficulties likely to be encountered in the management of a class action. Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(b)(3)(A)-(D). "Where classwide litigation of common issues will reduce litigation costs and promote greater efficiency, a class action may be superior to other methods of litigation." Valentino v. Carter-Wallace, Inc., 97 F.3d. 1227, 1235 (9th Cir. 1996).
Defendants' main argument hinges on the claim that litigation is already pending in Monitronics. Specifically, defendants argue that certification here would not be superior because it could lead to double recovery, and it would be difficult to manage a class action where parallel proceedings involving the same allegations against different defendants are pending. With regard to apportioning liability, those arguments recycle those made in the context of predominance, and are similarly without merit here. As discussed above, any risk of double recovery could easily be addressed by affording Alarm.com an offset against any recovery by the Monitronics plaintiffs, if appropriate. While managing a class action alongside parallel proceedings regarding the same conduct against different defendants may present difficulties, Alarm.com makes no showing that these difficulties would be resolved by having plaintiffs pursue their claims individually. Further, defendants' arguments which raise consolidation concerns are not relevant to a superiority analysis.
Additionally, the Court notes the statutory damages provided by the TCPA are "not sufficient to compensate the average consumer for the time and effort that would be involved in bringing a small claims action against a national corporation." Agne v. Papa John's Int'l, Inc., 286 F.R.D. 559, 571-72 (W.D. Wa. 2012) (citing cases); see also Whitaker v. Bennett Law, PLLC, No. 13-CV-3145, 2014 WL 5454398, at *7 (S.D. Cal. 2014) (finding that given the damages allowed under the TCPA, "requiring the putative class members to adjudicate their claims independently would be too economically burdensome and would deprive many of a chance to recover under the law"). In light of these considerations, the Court finds that a class action is superior to individual adjudication.
The Court thus finds that the proposed classes, as modified by the Court, satisfy all the requirements under Rules 23(a) and 23(b)(3) for class certification, and
For the foregoing reasons, the Court orders as follows:
This Order terminates Dkt. No. 84, 85, 92, 98, 100, 102 and 115.