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 December 13, 2018, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a Second Report and Order addressing issues with reassigned phone numbers and potential Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) liability, and establishing a safe harbor for business callers. Currently, there is no comprehensive database which allows businesses to determine whether a phone number…
On December 13, 2018, the Northern District of California granted summary judgment to a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) defendant in a case involving confirmatory text messages. In Phan v. Agoda Company, No. 5:16-cv-07243 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 13, 2018), the plaintiff alleged that text messages he received from the defendant…
On December 13, 2018, the CFPB published a proposed rule, seeking public comment regarding a change to its policy on No-Action Letters, as well as a new feature called the “Product Sandbox,” a rule change that was initially announced on September 13, 2018. The comment period for the proposed rule…
On December 10, 2018, Kathy Kraninger was sworn in to serve as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) for a five-year term. This followed her December 6, 2018 confirmation by the Senate with a vote of 50 to 49. Kraninger succeeds Mick Mulvaney, her former boss at the…
The Southern District of New York is deciding whether a putative class action can proceed beyond the motion to dismiss phase in a lawsuit that may implicate how banks define crypto currency purchases, and how those purchases fit into regulatory frameworks. The case is Brady Tucker, et al. v. Chase Bank…
On November 13, 2018, the District of Minnesota rejected the Ninth Circuit’s expansive interpretation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s (TCPA’s) automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS) provision in Marks v. Crunch San Diego, LLC. In Roark v. Credit One Bank, N.A., No. 16-cv-00173 (D. Minn. Nov. 13, 2018), the court…
On November 13, 2018, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in PDR Network, LLC v. Carlton & Harris Chiropractic (No. 17-1705), to answer the question whether the Hobbs Act required the district court to accept the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC’s) legal interpretation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). At issue…
On November 7, 2018, in the closely-followed case Marks v. Crunch San Diego, LLC, No. 14-56834 (9th Cir.), the Ninth Circuit granted a stay of its ruling on the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s (TCPA) definition of an “automatic telephone dialing system” (ATDS) while appellee Crunch San Diego, LLC files a petition for writ of…
On October 18, 2018, the Northern District of Georgia declined to extend the Supreme Court’s holding in Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court of Cal., S.F. Cty., 137 U.S. 1773 (2017) to dismiss or to strike the class allegations in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) case. In Dennis v….
On October 15, 2018, in remarks to the Mortgage Banker’s Association, Acting Director Mick Mulvaney declared that the CFPB will move away from “regulation by enforcement” by clarifying standards of conduct, to provide the regulated community with a measure of certainty when engaging in business operations. Mulvaney stated that, under…
On October 2, 2018, the U.S. Senate’s Banking Committee held a hearing to review regulators’ implementation of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act (S.2155) since its passage in June. As framed by Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID), the law “right-sizes regulations for financial institutions, making it easier…
On September 20, 2018, the Ninth Circuit issued an opinion finding that the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s (TCPA’s) “automatic telephone dialing system” (ATDS) definition is vague and ambiguous, and interpreting the statutory definition anew. More specifically, in Marks v. Crunch San Diego, LLC, the court interpreted the TCPA’s ATDS definition…
On September 14, 2018, the Community Financial Services Association of America, Ltd. and the Consumer Service Alliance of Texas (Industry Groups) moved for a preliminary injunction to prevent many of the provisions of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB’s) payday lending rule (12 C.F.R. Part 1041) from becoming effective on…
On August 28, 2018, the Ninth Circuit affirmed Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’ decisions in two putative class actions challenging Citibank’s and J.P. Morgan Chase’s default servicing practices. In Stitt v. Citibank, N.A. and Ellis v. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., the Ninth Circuit concluded that Judge Rogers had correctly dismissed…
On August 13, 2018, the California Supreme Court answered a question certified to it by the Ninth Circuit, holding that a loan with a high interest rate can be unconscionable, even if the legislature specifically declined to impose an interest rate cap on loans of that amount. See De La Torre…
On August 10, 2018 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a final rule adopting changes to Regulation P to bring the regulation into conformity with its authorizing statute, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, 15 U.S.C. § 6801 et seq. (GLBA). The rule, which was enacted to reduce regulatory burden on financial…
On July 26, 2018, the Northern District of Illinois granted a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) defendant judgment on the pleadings because plaintiff failed to allege a required element of his claim—the use of an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS). Pinkus v. Sirius XM Radio, Inc., 2018 WL 3586186 (N.D. Ill….
On July 16, 2018, in Collins v. Mnuchin, No. 17-20364, a Fifth Circuit panel ruled that the single-director structure of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is unconstitutional. The ruling comes on the heels of the Southern District of New York’s CFPB v. RD Legal Funding LLC decision (2018 WL 3094916…
On June 26, 2018, the Third Circuit affirmed summary judgment in favor of defendant Yahoo, Inc. in a putative Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) class action, Dominguez v. Yahoo, Inc., because plaintiff had failed to provide any relevant and admissible evidence that Yahoo’s systems met the TCPA’s automated telephone dialing…