On October 30, 2020, the CFPB published its years-in-the-making amendment to Regulation F (“the Rules”) to implement the FDCPA. These rules address many topics, including email and text message communications, time, place and matter communication restrictions, record retention requirements, and the long-awaited solution to the infamous Foti problem - voicemail messages. But is the CFPB’s solution to the voicemail problem really a solution for companies whose name suggests they are in the debt collection business?
In response to overwhelming industry support for a legal fix, the CFPB offered a solution to the age-old Foti problem for debt collectors. (As a refresher, the problem is this: what can a debt collector say on a voicemail without violating the FDCPA’s requirement to provide certain disclosures to consumers while at the same time complying with the FDCPA’s prohibition on unauthorized third party disclosure in the event someone other than the consumer hears the message?) The CFPB’s solution is a newly birthed creature named the “limited content message.”
The Rules define a “limited content message” as a voicemail message for a consumer which contains:
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