J.P. Morgan Chase Bank face class action for recording calls without consumer consent

Reuters report that the J.P. Morgan (one of the largest financial corporations in the world) are facing a class action (otherwise known as a group action here) in the U.S. which is being brought by multiple aggrieved consumers and to be heard in the Californian federal court.

The case is in relation to J.P. Morgan allegedly recording calls without consent, which is reportedly a violation of state laws. The lawsuit, which reportedly only covers outbound calls, was filed on the 3^rd of July in the ‘golden state’ with allegations that J.P. Morgan’s practice of recording calls without permission has been a problem for a long time.

The corporate giant provides the following disclaimer on their website:

“As part of our compliance with applicable laws and regulations, certain telephone conversations with J.P. Morgan personnel may be recorded. Please note that these recordings may be made with or without the use of a spoken warning, tone or similar notification.”

However, given the class action is going ahead, it’s thought that the website disclaimer isn’t enough to satisfy state laws surrounding the recording of calls and notifying participants. This action relates to laws in the U.S. which do differ to those here in the U.K., but there are often similarities in the laws anyway.

Telecommunications Regulations in the U.K. provide that companies can record calls but only for specified reasons, such as:

For most of these purposes, companies may not always need to inform the other side they’re recording their calls, but for reasons like marketing research, permission is often needed. For the individual, permissions is not required to record calls to another individual but it may be required if that data is then shared with a third party.