Consumer Group to Demand FDCPA Changes at FTC Workshop

A consumer group participating in the Federal Trade Commission’s debt collection workshop in October is looking for significant changes to the FDCPA and other laws governing collectors.

“There need to be fundamental changes in the laws that govern collectors,” said Lauren Saunders, managing attorney for the National Consumer Law Center. Saunders told insideARM.com today that the group is looking forward to debates that should arise over the course of the two-day workshop. “We are likely to see some strong disagreements among the panelists,” she said.

Saunders will be participating in a panel devoted to the consumer’s perspective on the collections industry and the FDCPA. The panel will be held on Oct. 10, the first day of the workshop.

The Boston-based consumer group places much of the blame for soaring consumer complaints against collectors at the feet of creditors, specifically credit card issuers, for pushing debt on “consumers who are already in a stressed financial condition with little regard for ability to pay." The organization’s views are available in a comment letter posted on the section of the FTC’s Web site devoted to the workshop.

Still, many of the group’s proposals are aimed at collection agencies.

The NCLC says that the FDCPA should be changed to allow consumers to orally request cease of communication from collectors, and that this right should be communicated to consumers; require a collector’s initial communication with a debtor identify the original creditor and itemize fees and interest; and, give consumers effective remedies from collector violations including injunctive relief and damages and class relief adjusted for inflation.