Welcome to the Research Assistant Weekly Newsletter - a subscriber-only resource for insight into emerging compliance challenges, details on peer calls, and links to new Research Assistant reports, documents, tools, and more.
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In this week’s Research Assistant Peer Group call, we discussed two recent lawsuits filed against collection agencies for alleged violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) related to text messages. Each case alleged the debt collectors violated the FDCPA by sending text messages which did not include a disclosure that the message was an attempt to collect the debt.
These lawsuits highlight the conundrum debt collectors have faced since implementing text messaging communications. In an effort to prevent wireless carriers from blocking messages, agencies have experimented with language that conveys information but does not include phrases that are likely to get the message blocked. Each consumer raised state law claims in addition to their FDCPA claims.
We will have to watch and see how these are litigated and what the outcome will be. The rulings of these claims may either give us heartburn trying to comply with the almost impossible, or it may give us insight into how to set up text messages that will protect us going forward. It’s worth paying attention to.
The cases are:
- Kureska v. Eastpoint Recovery Group, LLC. 7:25-cv-00216 (E.D. NC)
- Obafunwa v. AA Recovery Solutions Inc. 4:24-cv-05093 (S.D. TX)
Documents and Crowdsourced Materials:
Top Reads:
Upcoming Webinars/ Other Announcements:
- RA Compliance Corner: Why Your Compliance Tribe is Crucial, Thursday, March 6th at 2:00 ET. Register here.
- Important Announcement: All AI Notetaking Bots will be removed from Research Assistant Peer Group Meetings. This is to maintain the confidentiality of our peer members.
- Have topics you want to discuss during the peer call? Please send them to Sara_Consultant@roundtables.us by Thursday to ensure it makes it on our agenda!
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