ACA Files Comments with FTC, Proposes FDCPA Changes

In response to the Federal Trade Commission request for public comments to be considered at the FTC’s Debt Collection Workshop, Oct. 10-11, 2007, in Washington, D.C., ACA International, the Association of Credit and Collection Professionals (ACA), has filed comments supporting the perspective of its members and the industry.

The FTC is hosting the workshop, titled “Collecting Consumer Debts: The Challenges of Change,” to examine in depth the present state of the collection industry and the effectiveness of existing consumer protections such as the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The workshop will be the most significant review of the FDCPA—the primary federal regulation concerning the collection industry—since its enactment nearly 30 years ago.

The FTC issued a lengthy set of questions and topics for discussion in its formal request for public comment issued in April.  The topics were arranged in six categories:

1. Demographic and Industry Information
2. Industry Trends
3. Debt Collection Practices and Techniques
4. Industry Compliance with Applicable Federal and State Laws
5. Consumer Behavior and Knowledge of Their Rights
6. Legislative Issues

The ACA compiled responses and discussion on the topics into a 115-page document.  Much of the document was industry overview, background, and discussion of various Federal and state laws.

The ACA, however, did make fifteen recommendations for specific amendments to the FDCPA.  Among them:

• An addition to the section of the FDCPA that defines third party disclosure.  The ACA proposes to add language that will clear a collection from a third party disclosure violation if the communication is intended for the debtor but intercepted by another party (currently, the FDCPA makes no such distinction).
• A change in the section of the FDCPA that relates to harassment.  The FDCPA currently says that making phone calls “without meaningful disclosure of the caller’s identity” constitutes harassment.  As insideARM.com pointed out, this requirement can lead to third-party disclosure violations.  The ACA proposes to change the language from “meaningful disclosure of the caller’s identity” to language that specifically states which elements must be given to identify the caller.
• An addition to the section of the FDCPA that covers communication methods.  The ACA would seek to include language that would allow collectors to use autodialers when contacting debtors on cell phones.

The ACA also makes other recommendations, ranging from including conflict of state and federal laws in a collectors’ bona fide error defense arsenal to mandating a regular review schedule of the FDCPA.

To read the text of the entire ACA comment document, please visit http://www.acainternational.org/images/10454/acadebtcollectionworkshopcomments.pdf.