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California Attorney General Holds Public Comment Sessions on California Consumer Privacy Act Regulations

by Evelina Manukyan |

Beginning on Monday, December 2, 2019, the California Attorney General began holding a series of four public comment hearings to receive comments on the draft regulations issued by the Attorney General in October 2019 regarding the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”). Severson & Werson attorneys Joseph W. Guzzetta and Evelina Manukyan attended the San Francisco public comment hearing… Read More

District Court (Conn.) Says Duplicate Debt Collectors’ Credit Reporting Did Not Violate FDCPA

by Scott J. Hyman |

In Reyes v. IC Sys., No. 3:19-cv-01206 (JAM), 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 207563, at *1-5 (D. Conn. Dec. 3, 2019), the District Court held that simultaneously debt collectors' consumer reporting on the same debt did not violate the FDCPA. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) provides in relevant part that a debt collector may not use false, misleading, or… Read More

District Court (Cal.) Certifies Injunctive Data Breach Class Against Facebook, but Denies Certification of Damages Class

by Scott J. Hyman |

In Adkins v. Facebook, Inc., No. C 18-05982-WHA, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 206271 (N.D. Cal. Nov. 26, 2019), Judge Alsup granted in part and denied in part a data breach class. This is a putative class action by plaintiff Stephen Adkins against defendant Facebook, Inc. Plaintiff asserts a claim for negligence based on Facebook's alleged faulty security practices in collecting… Read More

Superior Court (Cal.) Says that Civil Code 1459.5, Purporting to Overrule Lafferty, Is Not Retroactive and Is Pre-empted Anyway

by Scott J. Hyman |

A Superior Court judge ruled on the applicability of Civil Code 1459.5 to an attorney fee motion brought against a Holder.  The Superior Court held: The Court is unwilling to apply pending Civil Code 1459.5.  It does not take effect until January 1, 2020 and is pre-empted by the Federal Trade Commission's May 2, 2019 ruling on the issue of… Read More

District Court (NY) Says It’s Powerless to Approve Class Settlement Arising Out of Data Breach Due to Lack of Art. III Cognizable Injury

by Scott J. Hyman |

In Steven v. Carlos Lopez & Assocs., No. 18-CV-6500 (JMF), 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 203621 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 22, 2019), Judge Furman declined to  approve settlement of a data breach class due to the absence of Art. III standing. In June 2018, an employee of Defendant Carlos Lopez & Associates, LLC ("CLA"), a provider of mental and behavioral health services to… Read More

District Court (Wis.) Says Tort Claims Deriving From Wrongful Repossession Claim Were Not Barred By Economic Loss Rule

by Scott J. Hyman |

In Burt v. Chase Auto Fin. Corp., No. 19-C-739, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 202056 (E.D. Wis. Nov. 21, 2019), Judge Griesbach permitted tort claims arising out of an allegedly wrongful repossession of a vehicle to proceed despite the economic loss rule. Chase asserts that the court should dismiss Burt's invasion of privacy, trespass to land and chattel, and conversion claims… Read More

Court of Appeal (Cal.) Finds NOI Compliant in Unpublished Decision

by Scott J. Hyman |

In Lobel Fin. Corp. v. Guiam, No. H044095, 2019 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 7717, at *8 (Nov. 20, 2019), the Court of Appeal found that an automobile finance company's NOI withstood an ASFA challenge. In this case, respondent sent appellant an NOI pursuant to the ASFA. The terms of the NOI are not in dispute. What is in dispute is… Read More

11th Cir. Reverses Class Cert. in DIRECT TV; Says “Fairly Traceable” Analysis Has Some Bite Under Art. III

by Scott J. Hyman |

In Cordoba v. DIRECTV, LLC, No. 18-12077, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 34146 (11th Cir. Nov. 15, 2019), the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit renewed the bite of Lujan’s ‘fairly traceable’ component of Article III standing, remanding to the District Court for it to re-do it’s analysis certifying a TCPA class against DIRECT TV. DIRECTV's second argument -- that class… Read More

New FDCPA Legislation Gets Out of Committee

by Scott J. Hyman |

The House Financial Services Committee passed 8 bills, according to an announcement from Rep. Maxine Waters today: The Ending Debt Collection Harassment Act of 2019 (H.R. 5021), a bill by Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), to amend the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) to prohibit a debt collector from contacting a consumer by email or text message without a consumer’s… Read More

District Court (Ala.) Says Consumer Report Pulled Over Investor’s Objection in Business Transaction Was Still Subject to FCRA

by Scott J. Hyman |

In Sullivan v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., No. 19-0234-WS-M, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 196114 (S.D. Ala. Nov. 12, 2019), Judge Steele allowed a “permissible purpose’ FCRA case past the pleadings stage despite the commercial nature of the transaction. Entangled with the defendant's [*16]  argument that it did not pull a "consumer report" is the argument that "FCRA does not apply to… Read More

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