7th Cir. Holds No FDCPA Claim Where Consumer Failed to Prove Credit Card Transactions Were for ‘Consumer’ Purposes

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on the Maurice Wutscher blog and is republished here with permission.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently affirmed a judgment in favor of two debt collectors and against a debtor for his claims arising under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and the Wisconsin Consumer Act (WCA). In so ruling, the Court held that the debtor did not create a triable issue of material fact to overcome summary judgment because he failed to present sufficient evidence that the transactions comprising the credit card debt on the underlying account were for “personal, family, or household purposes,” and therefore that the debt was a “consumer debt” subject to the FDCPA, 15 U.S.C. § 1692, et seq., and the WCA, Wis. Stat. §§ 421-427.

A copy of the opinion in Burton v. Kohn Law Firm is available here.