Sallie Mae Sued Over Autodial Calls to Mobile Phones

SLM Corp., the largest U.S. student- loan company, was sued by a borrower who said he got harassing autodialer calls made to his mobile phone in violation of a law designed to protect consumers from abusive practices by lenders.

Mark Arthur, who took out loans for law school starting in 2003, alleged today in a federal court complaint in Seattle that he received prerecorded calls at all hours that he never consented to receive, as required by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, according to an e-mailed statement by the Seattle law firm Terrell Marshall & Daudt PLLC.

In the proposed class-action suit, Arthur, of Seattle, seeks to represent tens of thousands of borrowers who allegedly received such calls.

He asked for a court order halting SLM, known as Sallie Mae, from making the calls without consent and at least $1,500 for each violation of the consumer-protection law, according to an e-mailed copy of the complaint.

Sallie Mae is reviewing the complaint, said spokeswoman Martha Holler.

“It is our policy to comply with the TCPA,” Holler said in an e-mail.

The case is Arthur v. SLM Corp., U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington (Seattle).

BLOOMBERG