Court rejects Avid Telecom’s attempts to dismiss illegal-robocalls case

Attorney General Ellison’s lawsuit with bipartisan 49-state coalition to proceed; Avid allegedly sent or attempted more than 24 billion scam calls

May 9, 2024 (SAINT PAUL) — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced today that the United States District Court in Arizona has denied Avid Telecom’s multiple attempts to dismiss and delay a bipartisan, 49-state lawsuit against Avid Telecom, its owner Michael D. Lansky, and its vice president Stacey S. Reeves. Attorney General Ellison and the bipartisan coalition of 49 attorneys general who are members of the Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force sued Avid in May 2023 for initiating and facilitating billions of illegal robocalls to millions of people across the nation.

“Everybody hates robocalls — and everybody gets them, including me. Minnesotans file more complaints about robocalls with our office than about any other single problem — but because it’s hard for states acting alone to make a dent in them, I joined this bipartisan, nationwide task force so we can tackle this scourge together,” Attorney General Ellison said. “I’m very pleased the court smacked down Avid’s flimsy attempt to dismiss the first lawsuit our bipartisan coalition has brought. We’re now going forward with this lawsuit together to show Americans exactly how Avid let scammers perpetrate their fraud. I can’t wait.”

Avid Telecom allegedly sent or attempted to transmit more than 24 billion scam calls in a four-year period about Social Security Administration scams, Medicare scams, auto warranty scams, Amazon scams, DirecTV scams, credit card interest rate reduction scams, and employment scams. They continued transmitting these calls even after being notified at least 329 times that these illegal robocalls were being sent across their networks.