On July 30, a district court judge in the Southern District of California granted a defendant debt collector’s motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim. The Court held that the collection letters sent by Capital Management Services, LP (“CMS”) did not constitute violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
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
When the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decided ACA International v. Federal Communications Commission[1] in March 2018, many viewed the decision as a potential swan song for the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Experts predicted the FCC, buoyed by Chairman Ajit Pai, would step in quickly to reform existing regulatory guidance interpreting
A recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims has made it more likely that an ambitious overhaul of the federal student loan servicing industry will be forthcoming.
As background, the U.S. Department of Education has announced plans to make sweeping changes to the student loan industry by requiring that its loan servicers be
On July 9, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals entered a non-precedential opinion upholding a district court’s ruling that a third-party collection agency could not invoke a creditor’s mandatory arbitration agreement against a plaintiff that brought claims against the collection agency for violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act on the facts before the
In a recent decision, the California Supreme Court held that plaintiffs do not need to demonstrate a plan for identifying and notifying class members in order to certify a class, as long as they can point to “objective characteristics and common transaction facts” that will allow the court to ascertain the class in the future.
On July 24, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed new, comprehensive robocall reform. Passed by a vote of 429-3, the Stopping Bad Robocalls Act (“SBRA”) would give the Federal Communications Commission novel methods to enforce existing anti-robocall laws in addition to allowing the FCC to go after violators more strictly. Beyond giving the FCC the
On July 24, the Federal Trade Commission filed an administrative complaint against Cambridge Analytica, alleging that the company deceived consumers by falsely claiming it did not collect any personally identifiable information from Facebook users. The FTC alleges that Cambridge Analytica in fact collected users’ Facebook User ID—which can include users’ real names—as well as other