On September 14, 2020, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced that she secured protections for thousands of student borrowers who defaulted on student loans and who were allegedly subject to misleading and unlawful actions by one of the nation’s largest debt collectors. The settlement agreement resolves an investigation of…
On September 8, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the New York State Attorney General announced they filed a complaint against five New York debt-collection companies, along with the individual owners and managers of the firms. The complaint, filed in the Western District of New York, alleges the…
On September 8, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced it filed a complaint against a group of California-based debt collection companies and their subsidiaries. The complaint, filed in the Southern District of California, alleges the defendants violated the terms of a 2015 consent order (the Order) with the…
On December 11, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced it had reached a settlement with the remaining Defendants in an enforcement action against multiple related companies and their controllers involved in an alleged phantom debt scheme in which the Defendants pressured consumers into paying non-existent debts by threatening legal action…
On August 8, 2019, the Seventh Circuit, in Lavallee v. Med-1 Solutions, LLC, 932 F.3d 1049 (7th Cir. 2019), ruled that emails to consumers from debt collectors containing hyperlinks to information regarding debt, including validation notices, are not “communications” under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). Therefore, the court…
On August 28, 2019, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced a settlement with an Illinois-based debt collection company, resolving allegations that the company engaged in deceptive practices in violation of the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA), 12 U.S.C. §§ 5531 and 5536, and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), 15 U.S.C….
On July 25, 2019, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) and the New York Attorney General (“New York AG”) announced that they have filed two proposed settlements with three debt collection companies and two individuals who conducted business together in Buffalo, New York. The proposed settlements were filed in the U.S. District Court for…
On May 13, 2019, petitioner Kevin Rotkiske submitted his brief to the United States Supreme Court in Rotkiske v. Klemm, No 18-328. As noted in a previous post, the Court accepted Rotkiske’s appeal back in February to resolve a circuit split between the Third Circuit and the Ninth and Fourth…
On May 7, 2019, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) released a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (Notice) to implement the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). The Bureau’s stated purpose for the proposed rules, which would be placed in the existing Regulation F, is to “set clear,…
On April 5, 2019, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision holding that a plaintiff asserted a plausible claim under a provision of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) that forbids debt collectors from using “false, deceptive, or misleading representation[s] or means in connection with the collection…
On March 20, 2019, in the case of Obduskey v. McCarthy & Holthus LLP, the Supreme Court ruled that the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) does not apply to entities that conduct non-judicial foreclosure sales. In so holding, the Court zeroed in on the FDCPA’s definition of “debt collector,”…
On February 25, 2019, the United States Supreme Court accepted appeal from the Third Circuit’s decision in Rotkiske v. Klemm et al., No. 16-1668 (3d Cir. May 15, 2018). The Court is now primed to answer whether the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) encompasses the “discovery rule”—which tolls the…
On February 8, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina granted its motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against 10 debt collection companies and six individuals operating out of New York and North Carolina. The FTC alleged…
The issue of whether the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) applies to non-judicial foreclosure proceedings is now squarely before the U.S. Supreme Court. Following oral arguments last week in the case Obduskey v. Wells Fargo, et al., No. 17-1307, the Justices will be tasked with deciding whether non-judicial foreclosures qualify…
On November 1, 2018, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and the New York Attorney General’s Office announced their lawsuit against a New York-based debt collection operation, which alleges that the debt collection entities tricked people into agreeing to pay more money than what they allegedly owed in violation of Section 13(b) of the…
During the first half of 2018, Enforcement Watch tracked 40 publicly announced or publicly filed enforcement actions involving consumer financial services companies. The 18 enforcement actions tracked during Q1 2018 represent a substantial decrease from the 46 actions tracked in Q1 2017. That trend continued in Q2 2018, with Enforcement Watch…
On September 21, New York Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood announced a stipulated court order against three entities and individuals for illegal debt collection practices (collectively, “defendants”), which permanently bans the defendants from the debt collection industry and requires collective payment of almost $27 million in restitution and damages. The court…
On September 7, 2018, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a settlement with a Georgia debt collection company and its principals over alleged illegal collection practices. In October 2017, the FTC filed an action against the defendants alleging violations of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act), 15 U.S.C. §§ 45(a), 53(b),…
On July 13, 2018, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced a settlement with a debt collection company and its CEO for allegedly illegal debt-collection acts and practices. According to the CFPB, the company collected on consumer debts using various debt collection companies that allegedly engaged in unfair and deceptive practices in violation of…
On June 4, 2018, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a settlement with a North Carolina debt collection company and its principals over alleged illegal collection practices. In August 2017, the FTC filed an action against the defendants alleging violations of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, 15…