District Judge Rejects ViSalus’ Argument Against Excessive Monetary Damages

An August decision against ViSalus Inc. that awarded $925.2 million in a class-action lawsuit is heading to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit after ViSalus argued that the award was unconstitutionally excessive, violating due process. The substantial award was calculated after it was determined that ViSalus had placed more than 1.8 million marketing robocalls during a certain time frame of 2019 in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). Each violation of the TCPA carries minimum legal damages of $500. While ViSalus suggested U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon reduce damages in the original Oregon case to no more than $1 per call, Simon responded that the company’s “stratospheric number of TCPA violations” justified the penalty. His rejection of ViSalus’ arguments prompted the appeal. Oregonian Lori Wakefield first brought the class-action lawsuit against ViSalus after she and others allegedly received excessive phone calls from the company without their consent. According to Wakefield’s lawsuit, she enrolled in the company as an affiliate but quickly cancelled her association with ViSalus in 2013 after being unsatisfied with the company. Wakefield stated that ViSalus continued to contact her, but she claimed she requested for the company to stop calling her. When the calls continued, she sued.