Skip to main content

Search

Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices: 12.3.1 Introduction

Although courts often distinguish between types of damages, there is not always a clear dividing line. Direct or general damages are those directly and immediately resulting from the unfair or deceptive act or practice and pertain directly to the goods or services involved in the transaction. For example, if a used car dealer sells the consumer a defective automobile, the decreased value of the automobile is direct damages.

Fair Debt Collection: Ark. Code Ann. §§ 17-24-101 to 17-24-512 (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act)

Coverage: The statute’s licensing requirements and restrictions on collection fees in § 17-24-309 apply to collection agencies, defined as a person or one of various business entities that (1) engages in the collection of delinquent accounts, bills or other forms of indebtedness owed or due or asserted to be owed or due to another; (2) uses any name other than its own in collecting its own accounts receivable; (3) solicits claims for collection; or (4) “purchases and attempts to collect delinquent accounts or bills.” § 17-24-101.

Fair Debt Collection: Cal. Civ. Code §§ 1788 to 1788.33, 1812.700 to 1812.702 (West) (Fair Debt Collection)

Coverage: Applies to “debt collector,” defined as “any person who, in the ordinary course of business, regularly, on behalf of himself or herself or others, engages in debt collection.” Debt must be a “consumer debt,” defined as one “due or owing or alleged to be due or owing from a natural person by reason of a consumer credit transaction” and including mortgage debt. Definition of “debt collector” also includes providers of forms, letters, or other media for the use in debt collection. Note that there is a separate statute (see below) further regulating debt buying. § 1788.2.

Fair Debt Collection: Cal. Civ. Code §§ 1788.50 to 1788.64 (West) (Fair Debt Buying Practices)

Coverage: Debt buyers, defined as persons or entities that regularly engage in the purchase of charged-off consumer debt for collection purposes, whether it collects debts itself, hires a third-party collector or hires an attorney for collection litigation. Exception for charged off debt included in portfolio predominantly consisting of consumer debts that have not been charged off; acquisition by check services company of right to collect on returned checks or automatic clearing house items. § 1788.50.

Fair Debt Collection: Cal. Family Code §§ 5610 to 5616 (West) (Child Support Collectors)

Coverage: Any individual, corporation, attorney, nonprofit organization, or other nongovernmental entity who is engaged by an obligee to collect child support ordered by a court or other tribunal for a fee or other consideration. Does not include attorneys who address child support issues in course of paternity, divorce, separation, etc. proceedings or postjudgment modifications. But does include any private, non-governmental attorney whose business is substantially comprised (i.e., more than 50% of remuneration or time) of the collection or enforcement of child support.

Fair Debt Collection: Colo. Rev. Stat. § 5-5-109 (Consumer Credit Code)

Coverage: Applies to any person.

Prohibited Practices: Broad prohibition, applicable to “any person,” of unconscionable debt collection, including use of deceptive forms; fraudulent, deceptive or misleading representations; simulated legal process; representing itself as government-approved; unlawful threats; unreasonable communications. § 5-5-109.

Fair Debt Collection: Colo. Rev. Stat. §§ 5-16-101 through 5-16-135

This statute will sunset on July 1, 2028. § 12-14-137. Note that this summary reflects the amendments made by 2017 Colo. Legis. Serv. Ch. 285 (S.B. 17-216), which was approved on June 1, 2017. Section 2 of that bill, effective immediately upon enactment, extends the sunset date for the state debt collection statute to 2030. Sections 3, 4, and 7, effective Jan. 1, 2018, amend the debt collection statute’s definitions and substantive provisions. However, 2017 Colo. Legis. Serv. Ch. 260 (H.B.

Fair Debt Collection: Colo. Rev. Stat. §§ 5-17-101 through 5-17-113 (Colorado Child Support Collection Consumer Protection Act)

Coverage: Person or entity that collects or seeks to collect child support, required to be paid by court or administrative order, if the obligee lives in Colorado at the time of contracting, or the collector has a place of business in Colorado, or the collector contacts more than twenty-five obligors per year in Colorado. § 5-17-102(9)(a). Exemptions for attorneys, persons exempt under state debt collection law, non-profits that charge no more than a nominal fee, and independent contractors providing services for county government agency that county is required by law to provide.

Fair Debt Collection: Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 36a-645 to 36a-648a (Creditors’ Collection Practices)

Coverage: Creditors, defined as persons to whom a consumer debt is owed by a consumer residing in the state, if the debt resulted from a transaction in the ordinary course of the person’s business, or any person to whom such a debt is assigned; excludes collection agencies (defined to include debt buyers: entities engaged directly or indirectly in the business of collecting debt that was delinquent or defaulted when acquired); and various government entities. § 36a-645.

Fair Debt Collection: Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 36a-800 to 36a-814 (Collection Agencies)

Coverage: Statute applies to “consumer collection agencies,” defined as those “engaged as a third party in the business of collecting or receiving payment for others on any account, bill or other indebtedness from a consumer debtor,” or “engaged in the business of collecting on any account, bill or other indebtedness from a consumer debtor for such person’s own account if the indebtedness was acquired from another person and if the indebtedness was either delinquent or in default at the time it was acquired.” Definition also includes private collectors of municipal property taxes,

Fair Debt Collection: D.C. Code §§ 22-3401 to 22-3403

Coverage: Any person collecting or aiding in the collection of private debts or obligations; detective agencies. § 22-3401.

Prohibited Practices: Use of the term “District of Columbia,” “D.C.,” etc. to create a false impression of a connection to local government. § 22-3401.

Private Remedies: Criminal penalties only; no mention of private remedies. §§ 22-3402, 22-3403.

Fair Debt Collection: Fla. Stat. §§ 559.55 to 559.785 (Consumer Collection Practices)

Coverage: Prohibited practices, complaint procedure, and private remedies sections apply to any person collecting consumer debts. § 559.72. Registration requirements apply to a consumer collection agency, defined as a debt collector (definition substantially similar to FDCPA) or any business entity engaged in the business of soliciting consumer debts for collection or collecting consumer debts. The registration requirement excludes original creditors, lawyers, financial institutions, real estate and insurance professionals. §§ 559.55(3) through 559.55(7), 559.553.

Fair Debt Collection: Ga. Code Ann. §§ 7-3-1 to 7-3-29 (Installment Loan Statute)

Coverage: Applies to industrial loan licensees (certain lenders making loans of $3000 or less, but not various regulated financial services providers, including banks, trust companies, insurance companies, mortgage lenders, pawnbrokers, etc., and educational institutions making student loans), and their employees or agents, including debt collectors. §§ 7-3-3, 7-3-4.

Fair Debt Collection: Idaho Code §§ 26-2222 to 26-2251 (Collection Agencies)

Coverage: A “collection agency” is defined as a person who engages in any of a variety of specified collection-related activities, including engaging or offering to engage in the business of collecting debts for the person’s own account if the indebtedness was acquired from another person and was delinquent or in default when acquired. §§ 26-2222, 26-2223.

Fair Debt Collection: 720 Ill. Comp Stat. § 5/17-5

Coverage: Collection agencies as defined in Collection Agency Act (see above) and their employees.

Prohibited Practices: Impersonation of attorney, police, sheriff, deputy sheriff, bailiff, county clerk’s office employee, or other enforcement officer; use of false name; addition of unauthorized charges to debt; threatening to affect debtor’s credit rating adversely without simultaneously disclosing debtor’s right to inspect credit rating; accepting payment which collector knows is not owed.

Fair Debt Collection: Ind. Code §§ 25-11-1-1 to 25-11-1-16

Coverage: Collection agencies, defined as all persons engaging directly or indirectly, as a primary or secondary object, in soliciting claims for collection, or in the collection of claims due or asserted to be due another, including child support arrearages. “Claim” as defined is limited to obligations for the payment of money or its equivalent and any sum or sums owed or due or asserted to be owed or due to another. Also covers creditors using fictitious name, and furnishers of letters, etc. or “written demand service” for use by creditors in collecting debts.

Fair Debt Collection: Ind. Code § 24-4.5-5-107 (Uniform Consumer Credit Code)

Coverage: Extensions of consumer credit.

Prohibited Acts: “Extortionate” extensions of credit, i.e., those where it is the understanding of the debtor and creditor that, if repayment is delayed, violent or criminal means to harm the person, property or reputation of the debtor may be used.

Private Remedy: Debt is unenforceable by civil judicial process.

Fair Debt Collection: Iowa Code §§ 537.7101 to 537.7103 (Consumer Credit Code)

Coverage: “Debt collector:” a person engaging directly or indirectly in soliciting consumer debts for collection or in the collection or attempted collection of consumer debt (explicitly including checks) on behalf of oneself, one’s employer, or others; includes furnishing forms represented to be a debt collection system. § 537.7102.