Villegas

BACKGROUND

In his operative second amended class action complaint (SAC), plaintiff and appellant Antonio Villegas alleges that defendants and respondents ADT LLC (ADT) and IMI Marketing, Inc. (IMI), an “ADT authorized dealer,” sell, install, and monitor alarm systems in the City of Los Angeles (the City) without informing customers that the City requires an alarm permit and associated fee. Even though defendants know customers who use an alarm system without a permit will be in violation of City law, defendants fail to inform them of the permit requirement and cost. According to the SAC, Villegas, who was not aware of the permit requirement, purchased an alarm system and monitoring services from defendants in 2010 for a total price of $1,727.64. After his system experienced a false alarm in 2012, Villegas was billed $251 by the Los Angeles Police Department for a false alarm from his unpermitted alarm system. Villegas paid the fine. If the system were permitted, the fine would have been $151 ($100 less), or Villegas would have had the option of attending a “free alarm school” to have the bill waived entirely.

Unless otherwise specified, all further statutory references…