Marriott Wins Robocall Lawsuit

Marriott International has achieved a significant legal victory by winning a lawsuit in federal court in Virginia. The lawsuit was filed against individuals responsible for making tens of millions of illegal and fraudulent robocalls to consumers. These individuals misused the Marriott name and the names of its brands. The initial lawsuit, filed in May 2021 as a “John Doe” lawsuit, targeted anonymous bad actors who exploited Marriott’s brands for their own commercial gain, thereby violating both state and federal laws.

The individuals responsible for these illegal robocalls convinced people to buy vacation and timeshare deals by falsely pretending to be representatives of Marriott or affiliated with the company. The number of fraudulent robocalls claiming to be from Marriott increased significantly in 2020, reaching a peak of seven million per month. As a result, some consumers had to deal with repeated robocalls, causing frustration for both them and the company.

Marriott hired technology specialists YouMail and the Industry Traceback Group to help protect its consumers and brand. These groups tracked robocalls that used Marriott’s trademarks, which allowed the company to identify the sources of the robocalls. After issuing dozens of subpoenas, Marriott updated its lawsuit in 2022 to include ten named domestic and foreign defendants. In the past two years, Marriott has obtained judgments, consent orders, or settlements against all six of the U.S.-based defendants and has continued to pursue claims against two foreign defendants.

On September 23, 2024, Marriott won legal judgments against two foreign defendants. One is Cancun Ink Corp. S.A. de C.V., a telemarketing company based in Mexico. The other is Deep Blue Desarrollos S. de R.L. de C.V., a Mexican timeshare resort previously known as Vallarta Gardens and now rebranded as Kovay Gardens. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ordered the defendants to pay Marriott $8 million in damages for using its trademarks in over 66 million robocalls between 2018 and 2022. The court also issued a broad injunction to prevent the defendants and anyone working with them from continuing these activities.

STATEMENTS

“While we pursued this litigation to protect our trademarks, our primary objective in the suit was to protect customers from unlawful, harassing and deceptive robocalls,” said Rena Hozore Reiss, Executive Vice President and General Counsel for Marriott International. “We are pleased with the outcome of the case.”

“In working with Marriott, we were able to help identify certain entities originating fraudulent robocalls and provide evidence of the scale and effect of these robocall campaigns,” said Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail.  “We are pleased that our collaboration helped address a frustrating issue for Marriott, its customers, and everyone getting those calls.”