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…
On June 21, 2018, a judge in the Southern District of New York ruled that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB’s) single director structure is unconstitutional. See CFPB v. RD Legal Funding LLC (2018 WL 3094916 (S.D.N.Y. June 21, 2018)). In doing so, the court adopted two dissenting opinions from…
One month after the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives voted to repeal of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB’s) indirect auto lending guidance under a Congressional Review Act challenge, President Trump signed the resolution to make the repeal official on May 21, 2018. The guidance, which Congress and the President have…
At the end of May 2018, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released an analysis of consumer debt collection complaints highlighting several issues that often arise in those complaints. In light of Acting Director Mulvaney’s comment in his January 2018 staff memo that debt collection complaints made up the majority…
On March 16, 2018, the D.C. Circuit issued a long-awaited ruling in ACA International v. FCC, which struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) expansive interpretation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s (TCPA’s) “automatic telephone dialing system” (ATDS) definition. As LenderLaw Watch analyzed more fully here, the D.C. Circuit focused…
On May 15, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued an important decision regarding the statute of limitations under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), 15 U.S.C. § 1692, et seq. In Rotkiske v. Klemm, No. 16-1668 (3d Cir. May 15, 2018), on appeal…
On May 8, 2018, the Sixth Circuit affirmed dismissal of a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) claim against Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer. As the Sixth Circuit noted at the start of its opinion in Health One Medical Center, Eastpointe P.L.L.C. v. Mohawk, Inc. et al., “[s]ome questions seem to arise…
On April 17, 2018, House members Sean Duffy (R-WI) and Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) co-sponsored bi-partisan legislation aimed at providing more certainty to companies subject to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) regulation. The bill, H.R. 5534, titled the “Give Useful Information to Define Effective Compliance Act” or “GUIDE Compliance Act,”…
On April 17, 2018, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced that the Senate would seek to repeal the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB’s) indirect auto lending guidance. The Senate passed a joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) on the following day, thereby sending the resolution…