On July 1, 2019, the US District Court for the Central District of California granted the plaintiff’s motion for preliminary approval of class settlement in Makaron v. Enagic USA, Inc., 2:15-cv-05145. The plaintiff allegedly received a 22-minute pre-recorded phone message from the defendant, a direct selling company that markets alkaline water filtration and ionization systems to distributors. The message encouraged the plaintiff to purchase an Enagic water system, and to become a distributor for Enagic products. The plaintiff further alleged that he received an additional marketing call several days later from an individual. He asserts, on his own behalf and on behalf of a certified class of up to 1,800,000 individuals, that the pre-recorded message violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 USC § 227 et seq.
The settlement requires Enagic to pay $12 to every class member who submits a valid and timely claim, and includes substantial injunctive relief, valued at $6 million, involving revision by the defendant of the policies and procedures prohibiting its independent distributors from using automated telephone dialing systems to market Enagic products, a compliance training program and revised enforcement protocols with its distributors, and two years of compliance oversight auditing by the class counsel, including bi-annual status reports. The total potential settlement value is $27.6 million.
Memorandum of points and authorities | Order granting preliminary approval