Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices: 8.8.2 Freezer Meats
Freezer meat plans involve purchase of discount meat through quantity purchases.
Freezer meat plans involve purchase of discount meat through quantity purchases.
The FTC has enacted a Trade Regulation Rule on Labeling and Advertising of Home Insulation.740 It requires the testing and disclosure of R-values, a standard measure of insulating effectiveness, and disclosure of related information concerning home insulation products.
Coverage: Statute applies to both debt collectors and creditors. “Debt collector” is defined as a person not a creditor, acting on behalf of a creditor, engaging or aiding, directly or indirectly, in collecting a debt owed or alleged to be owed to a creditor or an assignee of a creditor, but excludes most of the entities excluded from the FDCPA. “Creditor” is defined as a person (including agents, servants or employees conducting business under the creditor’s name) to whom a debt is owed or alleged to be owed. “Debt” includes taxes owed to political subdivisions of the state.
Coverage: Debt collectors, defined similarly to FDCPA as persons who use instrumentality of interstate commerce or the mails in any business the principal purpose of which is the collection of debts, or who regularly collect or attempt to collect, directly or indirectly, debts owed or due or asserted to be owed or due another. Includes persons whose principal business is enforcement of security interests.
[Editor’s Note.21]
Coverage: Applies to “any person” defined as a natural person or an individual, or an organization. § 37-1-301. Explicitly includes collection of a rental charge or any other fee or charge in a rent-to-own transaction as defined in § 37-2-701(6).
Coverage: Applies to entities holding a license to engage in the business of lending money, defined as originating, selling, servicing, acquiring, or purchasing loans, or servicing, acquiring, or purchasing retail installment contracts. § 54-4-36(2). Banks and certain other financial institutions are exempt from the chapter by virtue of § 54-4-37, but § 54-4-77.1 provides that they are still subject to the prohibitions of debt collection tactics found in § 54-4-77.
Coverage: Debt collector: person who directly or indirectly collects or solicits for collection consumer debts due or alleged to be due to a creditor, and includes sellers of debt collection forms. § 392.001. Third party debt collector: FDCPA definitions, except makes exception for attorney collecting as an attorney on behalf of and in the name of a client, provided attorney does not have non-attorney employees who solicit debts for collection or contact debtors.
Coverage: Applies to private child support enforcement agency, defined as an individual or nongovernmental entity who engages in the enforcement of child support ordered by a court or other tribunal for a fee or other consideration. Definition excludes state child support enforcement agencies and their contractors; and attorneys that do not have any non-attorney employees who regularly solicit for child support enforcement or contact child support obligors or obligees for the purpose of child support enforcement. § 396.001.
Coverage: Registration and bonding requirements apply to any person who “conduct[s] a collection agency, collection bureau or collection office in this state,” or engages in the business of soliciting the right to collect or receive payment for another, or advertises or solicits in print for the right to collect or receive payment for another. § 12-1-1. Attorneys, title insurance agencies, title insurance producers, banks, and trust companies excepted. § 12-1-7.
Coverage: Creditors.
Prohibited Practices: Unconscionable extension of credit, i.e., one in which debtor and creditor understand that delay or failure to repay may result in the use of violent or criminal means to damage the person, property, or reputation of any person.
Private Remedies: If extension of credit is extortionate, repayment may not be enforced through judicial proceedings and debtor may recover a penalty, as determined by the court, of not less than $100 or more than $5000, plus costs and attorney fees. Class actions prohibited.
[Editor’s Note.23]
Coverage: Collection agencies and creditors: any person engaging or aiding directly or indirectly in enforcing claims, including creditors and their agents when so acting. 3 Vt. Code R. § 3-2-103:CP 104.07(1).
Coverage: Applies to any person who simulates process “for the purpose of collecting money.”
Prohibited Practices: This is a criminal statute making it a criminal misdemeanor to simulate legal process “for the purpose of collecting money.”
Private Remedies: No mention of private remedies.
Coverage: Collection agencies, defined as persons engaged in directly soliciting for collection or collecting claims due or asserted to be due another; creditors who use a false name that creates the appearance of third-party involvement; furnishers of collection forms and systems; and any person or entity that is engaged in the business of purchasing delinquent or charged-off claims for collection purposes, whether it collects the claims itself or hires a third party for collection or an attorney for litigation in order to collect such claims. § 19.16.100(4), (7).
Coverage: Collection agencies, defined as persons or business entities that are directly or indirectly engaged in the business of soliciting from or collecting for others indebtedness originally due or asserted to be owed or due another; engaged in asserting, prosecuting or enforcing those claims; or engaged in the business of soliciting, or holding themselves out as engaged in the business of soliciting, debts of any kind owed or due, or asserted to be owed or due, to any solicited person, firm, corporation or association for fee, commission or other compensation.
Coverage: Applies to debt collectors, defined as persons or organizations engaging directly or indirectly in soliciting claims for collection or in the collection of claims owed or due or alleged to be owed or due by a consumer. Attorneys exempt if representing creditors in their own name, and not operating a collection agency under the direction of a non-attorney. § 46A-2-122. Separate but similar prohibitions apply to private collectors of child or spousal support. § 48-1-307.
Coverage: Collection agencies: person (defined to include business entities) engaging in the business of collecting or receiving payment for others of any account, bill or other indebtedness. Exempts lawyers, financial institutions, insurers and their agents, and real estate brokers and salespersons. Also exempts district attorneys or persons contracting with district attorneys collecting pursuant to dishonored check diversion statute. § 218.04(1)(a).
Coverage: Debt collectors: any person engaging directly or indirectly in soliciting or collecting claims owed or due or alleged to be owed or due a merchant by a consumer. “Claim” is defined as an obligation arising from a consumer transaction, including transaction for agricultural purposes. §§ 427.102, 427.103. “Merchant” is defined broadly to include sellers, lessors, manufacturers, creditors, arrangers of credit, and their assignees or successors. § 421.301.
Coverage: Collection agencies, defined as persons who: engage in business the purpose of which is collection of debts for Wyoming creditors; regularly collect or attempt to collect, directly or indirectly, for Wyoming creditors debts owed or due or asserted to be owed or due another; take assignment of debts for the purpose of collecting such debts; directly or indirectly solicit debts for collection that are owed or due or asserted to be owed or due a Wyoming creditor; use fictitious name to collect own accounts receivable; collect debts in-state from debtors located in-state by
Coverage: Creditors.
Prohibited Practices: Extortionate extensions of credit, i.e., if creditor and consumer understand that delay in repayment may result in the use of violent or criminal means to harm the person, property or reputation of any person.
Private Remedies: Debt arising from extortionate extension of credit is unenforceable by civil judicial process.
The complete failure to provide a disclosure (in contrast to providing an inaccurate disclosure) can cause monetary harm when the content of the disclosure would have affected the consumer’s behavior, as discussed in the preceding subsections. But there is still a good argument that a concrete injury exists regardless of whether the consumer would have acted differently upon receiving the disclosure.
Because disclosure is such an important part of TILA, another potential harm caused by disclosure-related violations is that the consumer does not receive information that Congress deemed valuable. This section discusses the loss of knowledge as an injury, rather than monetary losses and other adverse effects of failing to provide the information. This type of harm is called informational injury.