A plaintiff in Illinois has filed a lawsuit against a payment processor and debt collector, alleging it violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Regulation F by making repeated phone calls to his cell phone after the plaintiff had asked for communications to be ceased.
A copy of the complaint in the case of Miterin v. Global Payment Check Services can be accessed by clicking here.
The defendant contacted the plaintiff during “the winter of 2021” to collect on an unpaid debt. The plaintiff allegedly informed the defendant that he was unable to pay the debt because his work hours had been cut and because it was the holiday season. The plaintiff allegedly demanded that the defendant stop making calls to his cell phone. According to the complaint, the defendant made “not less than” 15 more calls to the plaintiff’s cell phone after the plaintiff had made his demand for the calls to be ceased. The “repeated contacts included placing repeated numerous calls to Plaintiff despite already having spoken to Plaintiff within 7 days of such repeated and voluminous phone calls,” according to the complaint, invoking Regulation F’s prohibitions on call frequency and communication caps.
The plaintiff alleges to have suffered a concrete harm in the forms of — invasion of privacy, being harassed in contravention of a consumer protection statute preventing abusive debt collection practices, emotional distress, and a material risk of harm to the plaintiff’s concrete interests protected by the FDCPA.
The defendant is alleged to have violated Sections 1692d, 1692d(5), 1692c(a)(1), 1692e, 1692e(10), and 1692f of the FDCPA.
Were the phone calls prior to the effective date of 11/30/2021 for Regulation F.
I don’t believe Regulation F is retroactive to includes dates after its effective date.