Aspiring plaintiffs continue to litigate the issue of an attorney’s role in sending debt collection letters. Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, a debt collector may not use false or misleading representations in the collection of a debt. 15 U.S.C. § 1692(e). In Bencomo v. Forster & Garbus LLP, et al., No.
On July 25, the Federal Trade Commission published a request for public comment on its implementation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) through the COPPA Rule.
COPPA regulates how websites and online services collect data and personal information from children. The FTC’s COPPA Rule requires that such operators who collect personal information from
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
Bombas, a manufacturer of socks, settled with the New York Attorney General over failing to give proper notification of a breach of customers’ credit card data in 2014. Bombas initially addressed the breach in 2014 when it determined that hackers had gained access to the information of nearly 40,000 customers, including names, addresses, and credit
On July 18, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a report analyzing market data from 2004 through 2018 on third-party debt collections tradelines reflected on credit reports compiled by the nationwide consumer reporting agencies. The CFPB segmented the report into two parts: buyers (entities that purchase debts and then collect on them) and non-buyers (entities
On July 11, FINRA issued Regulatory Notice (RN) 19-23, providing new details on how member firms and associated persons can receive credit for “extraordinary cooperation” with an investigation. RN 19-23 expands on RN 08-70, issued during 2008, by providing specifics as to what actions an investigated party could undertake to support its efforts in seeking
In August 2018, a sports concession company successfully moved to dismiss a class action complaint arising under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, finding the named plaintiff lacked Article III standing because she suffered no harm. The victory was short-lived, however, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau hosted a symposium with private attorneys to discuss the term “abusive” in “unfair, deceptive, and abusive acts and practices” (“UDAAP”) in late June. This was the first symposium, part of a symposia series, that will help the CFPB explore consumer protections in the changing financial services marketplace. There were two
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”
On July 16, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed a decision from the Eastern District of Missouri awarding $32 million in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act class action. Significantly, in doing so, the Court upheld the district court’s decision to limit the jury’s award to $10 per call for a