On July 30, the Northern District of Texas issued the first opinion by a federal court in Texas addressing the impact of ACA International on the definition of an automatic telephone dialing system (“ATDS”). In Adams v. Safe Home Security Inc., the Court rejected the Ninth Circuit’s rationale in Marks and held that
The Second Circuit remains a hotbed for consumer claims under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act related to disclosures of interest and fees in collection letters. Plaintiffs bombard New York courts with these claims, forcing courts to meticulously review every possible disclosure of amounts due. While most of these claims ultimately fail on summary judgment,
On August 2, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced that it would be extending the public comment period on its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) to amend Regulation F as part of implementing the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The CFPB announced that it is extending the public comment deadline to September 18, 2019.
On
On July 11, the Financial Services Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives held a hearing entitled “Who’s Keeping Score? Holding Credit Bureaus Accountable and Repairing a Broken System.” The hearing involved a series of bills that would potentially reform the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The proposed bills, which were advanced on a party-line vote
The Eastern District of New York recently granted a debt collector’s motion for summary judgment in a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act case because the collection letter clearly identified the creditor to whom the debt was owed and would not mislead even the least sophisticated consumer. In doing so, the Court critiqued the “lawyer’s case”
In a recent statement from the Federal Communications Commission, Chairman Ajit Pai proposed the adoption of new rules aimed at extending the anti-spoofing prohibitions in last year’s Ray Baum’s Act to international callers and texters. The provisions in last year’s Ray Baum’s Act extended the scope of the Truth in Caller ID Act, which the
On June 14, an Eastern District of North Carolina judge issued the first opinion within the Fourth Circuit addressing the impact of ACA International on the definition of an automatic telephone dialing system, or “ATDS.” In Snow v. GE, Judge Flanagan dismissed plaintiff Marian Snow’s complaint because she failed to allege facts “permitting an
On June 21, the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut granted a temporary restraining order to the Federal Trade Commission to stop the operations of Grand Teton Professionals, a credit repair company. The FTC previously filed a complaint against Grand Teton and related entities, including its owners in their individual capacities – alleging
On May 7, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a 538-page Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (the Rule) that would update the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). The Rule would be the first major update to the FDCPA since its enactment in 1977 and gives much-needed clarification on the bounds of federally-regulated activities of
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that, because Ohio’s privity requirements only require that the interests of one party adequately represent the interests of another, a plaintiff’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act claim was subject to binding arbitration because of a settlement agreement entered into by the plaintiff’s