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In its just-released decision, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has potentially created a new claim under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). In
Richard Hunstein v. Preferred Collection and Management Services, Inc., the Court examined a district court s dismissal of a novel argument – one that the decision itself notes is a question of first impression. The issue brought before the Court was whether a debt collector s sharing of information with a vendor is a violation of the FDCPA, specifically of 15 U.S.C. §1692c(b). The underlying facts are simple. A creditor referred a medical debt to a debt collector (Preferred). The debt collector utilized a third-party mail vendor (Compumail) to send a dunning letter to the debtor (Richard Hunstein). In doing so, certain information was conveyed, including (1) Hunstein s status as a debtor, (2) the balance of the debt, (3) the entity to which the debt was owed
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In a unanimous ruling late last week, the U.S. Supreme Court slashed the Federal Trade Commission’s favored route to impose monetary penalties in consumer protection cases. Our Consumer Protection/FTC Team examines the decision, its immediate impact on enforcement actions, and Congress’s ability to step in to increase the FTC’s authority through legislation.
The Section 13(b) “shortcut” to remedy consumer harm is blocked
How will this affect the FTC’s enforcement program?
Will Congress step in to offer a fix?
Late last week, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in
A recent federal appeals decision is sending shockwaves throughout the financial services sector. In Hunstein v. Preferred Collection & Mgmt. Services, Inc., the Court of Appeals for.
Each month, we host a 30-minute
webinar outlining the month s key announcements and takeaways from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) for financial services providers to consider. In this month s article, we share some of our top bites covered during the April 21 webinar.
So what happened at the CFPB in the past month?
Bite #10 - The CFPB submitted its FDCPA report to Congress and took various FDCPA enforcement actions
The CFPB released the 2020 annual report to Congress on the administration of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). Among other highlights, the report notes the following CFPB accomplishments:
Identified several issues that raise the risk of consumer harm during the COVID-19 pandemic through its supervisory Prioritized Assessments;
Highlights
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit s recent ruling in
Hunstein v. Preferred Collection and Management Services, Inc. may upend the long-standing and rather routine business practice of financial services companies using third-party vendors to manage, service and collect on outstanding debt.
Citing ostensibly to general privacy concerns and applying a textual analysis of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), the Eleventh Circuit reversed the lower court, holding that when a debt collector provides an outside letter vendor with personal account information relating to the collection of a debt, it rises to the level of an impermissible communication with a third party to which there is no exception